I Love My City

I Love My City is a hands down winner. As it claims, it is a book about everything urban with examples drawn from around the world, beginning with the oldest known city, Jericho in Palestine, and extending to look at future city designs, such as sustainable development.

I Love My City is organized into five sections: “Population”, “There are all kinds of cities out there!”, “How is a city organized?”, “Services”, and “Architecture and culture”. The Table of Contents includes the subheadings for each section.

For example, the TOC listing for “Services” includes the subheadings “Water is life”, “Energy keeps the city going!”, “Connecting the city”, and “Ecology, the environment, and sustainable development”. This is a critical organizational element since there is no Index. “I Love My City” is filled with excellent information. Readers will need the subheadings to relocate the information they want to retrieve.

Many of the concepts of civil engineering in I Love My City are explained using words and terms that may be unfamiliar to readers. Terms marked with an asterisk in the text are explained in the short glossary at the back of the book. Other terms are explained within the text and supported by the illustrations.

The words of authors France Desmarais and Richard Adam are translated into a fluent and comprehensible text by Nicholas Aumais. Colourful illustrations by Yves Dumont fill the pages with lively characters, a variety of types of architecture, and diagrams that portray the complex systems of urban life. The illustrations are always continuous across the double page spread, helping the reader see the connections. In addition to the humans in the illustrations, there is also a very engaging grey cat that readers may enjoy looking for throughout the pages.

There is nothing to not like about I Love My City except perhaps the title itself. The title does not do justice to the valuable information presented in a very accessible format within the pages. If this book is ever revised, perhaps it could include a subtitle borrowed from the back of the current edition of the book: “The Big Book of Civil Engineering for Curious Kids”.

But don’t wait for a later edition. Get your hands on this edition of I Love My City now. Your “curious kids” will thank you.