A City Dream

“Sometimes my neighborhood feels forgotten” opens the young narrator of this community-focused picture book dedicated by Moore to Baltimore. At school, a teacher urges students to imagine how they might help make their city great. Hemans’s lively illustrations bring these dreams to life in vivid detail: “I tell her I’ll paint rows of sunflowers, rainbows, and smiles” accompanies the image of a sunny mural on a market’s brick wall. Embracing both art and advocacy, text proposes “ropes braided with hope on a swing that reaches the stars” alongside a “walk to city hall.” As the visuals—and the city—brighten, they depict the narrator sketching a playground and planting a garden, and community members doing yoga and more. It’s an empowering vision of change-making that closes with a lively block party. Characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. An author’s note concludes. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)