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The Big City: Tales From Maple Ridge    by Grace Gilmore & Petra Brown Amazon.com order for
Big City
by Grace Gilmore
Order:  USA  Can
Simon & Schuster, 2015 (2015)
Hardcover, Softcover, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Jessica Maguire

What an endearing story for your young reader, aged five to nine years old. The easy-to-read language of this chapter book will help your junior reader hone his or her skills. And with nearly every page illustrated in charming pen and ink drawings, boredom will be kept at bay.

I expected to be bored with the plot of this story. A young country boy visits the city with his dad and comes to learn that there really is no place quite like home (sorry Dorothy!). What a yawn, I thought. That was my mistake, judging a book by its cover and the little informative blurb on the back.

But the story is more complex than what I expected. Young Logan, leaving his brothers and sisters at home with Ma, joins Pa when he goes for a job interview in the big city. Logan is to visit with his cousins, where his older cousin takes him on the tour of the city ... then out to lunch at a restaurant!

Adventures abound and Logan finds that city life is far different than his country life and though the grass may seem greener on the other side of the fence, that isn't always the reality. The setting, around the turn of the century (a horseless carriage even makes an appearance), will give the younger generation a sense of the world before smartphones, computers, and social media.

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