View from the 32nd Floor by Emma Cameron

Blurb: Something special has been gifted to you. Join your neighbours, Saturday, 6.00 pm, on the roof. Living on the thirty-second floor of an apartment block, William has a clear view of the building opposite. He sees his neighbours eating ice-cream, watering potted palms, painting pictures ... or as shadows behind closed curtains. Shadows worry William. With his new friend Rebecca, and helped by lots of cake, a dictionary of names, tai chi, and banana-shaped sticky notes, he plans to tempt his lonely neighbours back into the world. Can they succeed? Always always.

Today I had to wait around 3 hours at an appointment so I picked up View from the 32nd Floor before I left home this morning. Today is the THIRD time I have read this book and I still adore it - but I so desperately wish Walker Books Australia had given this book a better cover - apologies to Liz Anelli. I need to beg, shout, cajole this publisher to reprint this little book - it is such a GEM. 

I have talked about View from the 32nd Floor twice previously in 2013 and 2019 so please take a minute or two to read my comments and then IF you have any way of influencing the publisher please beg, plead, implore them to republish this book NOW. Perhaps we should all tell the author Emma Cameron too.

Teachers - you could use this book for so many things but most off all this book would be a splendid read aloud to a Grade 4 class. In my previous posts I talked about the music William's dad share each day and all the wonderful names William adopts to match his daily hopes and purpose.  Here are some character descriptions:

Mrs Stravros - "She had hair streaked with more silver threads than black, and her pale face was as wrinkled as crepe paper."

Paula - "Paula was as skinny as Jess but only came up to her armpits. Her boots were nothing like Jess's either. They were covered in sequins of every colour and a tiny bell jiggled at the end of each pointy toe when she walked."

Jess - "her skinny legs covered in stretchy black tights and her fine frame wrapped in a pale blue terry towelling bathrobe. Thick brown hair flopped over her eyes when she juggled a key in the lock."

Violin and Cello by Catherine Greer illustrated by Joanna Bartel

Expertise in music takes time. If you look closely at the illustrations in this book you can see the seasons changing as these two children practice their two instruments. They live in an apartment building next door to one another. The boy is learning violin while the girl practices her cello. Then one day the boy sends the girl a message via paper plane - it is a piece of music. I loved the way the full score appears in the book. The piece is called The Mystery Friends part I an allegro piece for violin and cello. The two children practice the new piece and then the cello girl writes her piece - The Mystery Friends part II Adagio. Finally, when the music is perfect they meet side by side on their balconies and begin to play. People in the street below stop to listen to their beautiful music. A beautiful moment of a community coming together.

And "that's how the mystery friends became real friends. Cello from a backpack. Violin from a case. The new friends made music all over the place."

Perhaps these ideas are not original – I am thinking of Herman and Rosie by Gus Gordon, but there is so much to like here. The inclusion of the music score (with a link to hear it) and the background details in many of the illustrations. There are some messages in this book but they just feel quite natural not preachy. Here are the extensive teachers notes.

It is the boy who plays the violin (I love the gentle message this conveys) and the boy is wearing glasses as many children do. Their music brings a diverse community together. This reminded me of a book I read recently - The Song for Everyone. 

On the page where the girl practices her cello, I really appreciated the way Joanna Bartel gave her different hair styles – such interesting way to show the passing of time and with her long hair of course it would be in different style each day. The repeated refrain of cello from a backpack, violin from a case also works well to give the text a pleasing rhythm.

If you look closely at their homes you can see the differences in the personalities of the two children. I do like the way one balcony is filled with pot plants and we also see the two families enjoying very different foods. 

The music included with this book is by Alexander Lau. You can see the full score here. And you can listen here. 

Neighbors by Kasya Denisevich

If you have children in your or library who live in an apartment building this would be a great book to share. And if the children live in free standing houses this might give them some idea about the differences other children experience from living in a building with lots of other people in homes that may look exactly like yours. 

I listened in to a library session with a kindergarten group in a school library today. The Teacher-Librarian asked the young children if they knew their address. Strangely very few children could repeat their full address (which is kind of scary if they were ever lost or needed to tell an authority person such as the police exactly where they live).  In this book the young child is moving to a new address:

"I know my new address by heart. 3 Ponds Lane, building 2, apartment 12."

The young girl is happy to have her own room but she also wonders about the people who live above, below and beside her. On one spread we see the real neighbors and then on the next page wonderful possibilities from her imagination. Do Snow White and her seven dwarf friends live on the floor above? Perhaps a mermaid lives on the top floor. You might also spy Cinderella's coach, three princesses enjoying dinner and a unicorn. The little girl has not yet met anyone and she begins to wonder if perhaps she is really all alone in this huge building. Luckily early the next morning as her mum walks her out their door she sees another young girl - the girl next door - and she is also heading to school. 

The art in this book is wonderful. Black, white and grey tones with spot colour of red and yellow. 

Denisevich’s fine-lined ink drawings are beguiling, and there’s a lot of detail to pore over here. It’s a book for lingering. She uses color, sparingly, to great effect. The grayscale illustrations pop with subtle spots of red, including occasionally in the text, to represent our narrator. It is not until her day of school that we finally start to see shades of other colors, including a sunny spot of yellow for a new friend in the hallway—and then in the blossoms of trees as they walk to school. The book’s endpapers—the tiles of the building’s hallway—also play cleverly with color.  Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Kasya Denisevich is a Russian-born author and illustrator now living in Barcelona. Her work has been featured in the 2017 Bologna Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition. This is her debut picture book. 

I would pair this book with:

We're Stuck by Sue DeGennaro

We are stuck! Where are we stuck? Why are we stuck?

Building 24 (my favourite number) has five floors all accessed by a central lift or perhaps you call this an elevator. Turtle lives on the top floor. His mum gives him a list - it is important. Turtle races out the door and jumps into the lift. As it travels down, the lift fills up with a delightful assortment of residents. The lift space soon becomes very squashy. Then the lights go out and the lift is stuck.

"I have a meeting to go to."
"I have a shop to open."
"I need to get to the hairdresser."

Look at these concerns - they all begin with "I".

It is our little hero Turtle who turns all of this around. He starts to cry and everyone looks at his list.

Today is his birthday.

Crocodile has a plastic glove - she turns it into a balloon.
Hippo grabs a newspaper and folds a set of paper hats.
Pelican has a delicious treat in his lunch box.

"And in Building 24, on the busy side of town, nothing was ever the same again."

There are not very many books on the CBCA Early Childhood Notables list this year that I truly like but We're Stuck is one exception. I especially love the first page where you need to turn the book lengthwise to see the whole building and I also like the variety of work wear worn by the animals characters who reside in this building and ride the lift.  Here is a set of excellent teachers notes from the publisher.

I have a horror of being stuck in a lift, especially a crowded one but this group of animal passengers in Building 24 work out a way to bring real joy to this very stressful situation. This is a perfect book to share with a young child aged 3+ and it poses the wonderful question - just what was written on that list?

View from the 32nd Floor by Emma Cameron

This is my second reading and second post about this utterly splendid middle grade novel. I wish the publisher, Walker Books, would consider a reprint with a better cover - I'm sure the cover (which in my view is not very appealing)  is why this book did not receive the attention it deserved. I was visiting Beachside Bookshop last weekend and I spied The View from the 32nd Floor. Actually I have seen it there on previous visits.  This gem of a book has been waiting for a new home since December 2016. Did you know you can often see the date a book arrives in a store on the price sticker? As you have guessed this shop copy now has a new home with me!

I originally talked about this book in 2013 and when I read my comments from then nothing has changed.  Reading this book all over again was just a joy. I did predict this book would be short listed by our CBCA - sadly this did not happen but The View from the 32nd Floor did make the notable list which means it should be in most Australian Primary school libraries - I certainly hope you can find it. I think it is still in print too.

Here are some excellent teaches notes produced by Walker Books. The best part of these notes, in my view, is that you will find a list of all the music that William hears each morning. In my first post I mentioned William's dad sets up some music for William to enjoy each morning over breakfast. I adore this idea.

Page 13: Up on the Roof by Carol King or The Drifters

Page 45: Forever Young by Bob Dylan
Page 51: What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
Page 67: That’s Just the Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby
Page 71: Comes a Time by Neil Young
Page 91: Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel
Page 103: I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash, Jimmy Cliff or Bob Marley
Page 111: Clean Up Time by John Lennon
Page 116: I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady
Page 121: From Big Things Little Things Grow by Paul Kelly
Page 123: I Like to Move It by Sacha Baron Cohen from Madagascar
Page 126: Dance With Me by Orleans

I should also mention there is so much delicious food in this book:

"Mrs Stavros ... opened the fridge. 'I give this one to you.' She offered a long tray that held three small pastry triangles. William did not want to be rude so he chose one. The sweet gooey insides tasted of magic and he felt as though his brain might float away."

Read these beautiful words from the author Emma Cameron:

I know the joy of growing sunflowers alongside blueberries, feel a jolt inside when a bird flies into a windowpane, think dictionaries are beautiful books and hope the sky never falls down.

Falcon's egg by Luli Gray

When I travelled to NYC several years ago I was keen to find all the places mentioned in books such as Eloise, From the mixed up files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler, The cricket in Times Square, When you reach me and Stuart Little.  I completely forgot this little book Falcon's Egg even though it is one I often recommend to my students.

New York City references :
Emily Falcon Davies known as Falcon finds an egg in Central Park
"The scarlet Egg lay hidden in the long grass, and though the day was misty and full of rain, the air around it shimmered with heat."

Falcon lives at 16 West 77th Street and from her friend Ardene's apartment she can see The Museum of Natural History.  Aunt Emily knows a man there called Freddy who is an ornithologist.  There is a disused aviary on the museum roof above Freddy's apartment.  "It was like an old castle, with tall battlements all around and narrow slits for shooting arrows through."

Falcon's mum is a book illustrator and she becomes very distracted when working towards a 'deadline' so the kids often eat take away food. "All they ate was take-out from the Korean deli on 77th and Columbus."

Central Park is where Falcon finds the Egg and where she takes her young dragon to fly during the night.   "In New York City, the streets are cleared of the last grey slush.  People open their coats to the April wind and catch the smell of lilacs from the Conservatory Garden at 105th Street."

Central Park is also the setting where her Friends of Egg gather for the final release of her dragon friend.  "Please come to the Rite of Passage for Egg.  4am. Meet inside park entrance west 77th Street."

One of my favourite ideas in this book is the way the Egg heats itself maintaining a temperature of 127 degrees Fahrenheit.  I also like the idea of keeping the egg snug in an old Russian fur lined hat.

Our copy is very worn and this book is long out of print so I am going to suggest you might read the ebook version.  Falcon's egg was first published in 1995 and arrived in our school library in 1997. I am considering buying a second hand copy as a replacement.  There are only one or two references which date this story.  Early on someone mentions a VCR for example and Falcon's dad sends postcards from Australia and Africa with no mention of email of course.

Researching this post I now discover there were two sequels. Both are also out of print.

Here are some reviews :
Publishers Weekly  An imaginative and meaningful tale, told with flair. 
Kirkus  Engaging, intelligent, and well-wrought:
School Library Journal Best book of the Year and an ALA Notable book

You might also enjoy Hatching Magic.  I would also suggest the trilogy about Kumiko.

View from the 32nd floor by Emma Cameron

Every so often I read a book that I just love and this is one of those times.  View from the 32rd Floor had an unpromising cover but please don't let that put you off.  This is a wonderful book very reminiscent of the writing of Odo Hirsch.  This book has a strong sense of compassion and community and a cast of interesting characters led by one special boy called ...

The hero of this book is a boy called William - well that is his real name but he has a book  - The big book of Names so each day he selects a new name and his joyous family and friends do not question this - each day William announces his new name and for that whole day everyone is happy to use it.

Here are some examples :
Gregory (vigilant watchman) Faust (lucky)
Demetrius (lover of Earth) Altair (flying eagle)
Forbes (traveller) Peregrine (a falcon)
Aulis (helpful) Oswin (divine friend)

William lives in a high rise apartment opposite another high rise apartment building.  He likes to use his binoculars to check on his neighbors - not because he is a spy or a busybody - he is just interested in people and their habits.  As the book opens a new family have moved in and William notices the girl walks like a pony.  He hopes this girl, who is called Rebecca, might become his friend.  He also notices one elderly neighbor is not eating properly and another never opens her curtains.

There are some delightful little ideas in this book.  For example each night William's dad sets their CD player with a new song for William to listen to while he eats breakfast.  Another example is the way William says "Always, always."

This book is also brim full of splendid food - and if you have read any part of this blog you will know that I love books that mention food and feasts and picnics and cake!

If you enjoy View from the 32nd Floor - what am I saying WHEN you read View from the 32nd Floor you will love it and then you should look for Hazel Green by Odo Hirsch, What do you think Feezal by Elizabeth Honey and Amelia Dee and the Peacock lamp also by Odo Hirsch.

I am going to make a bold prediction and say this book should be short listed for the 2014 CBCA awards.  If you are looking for a book to read this book should be number one on your list - it is sure to make you SMILE!!