Urban Playground

What Kids Say About Living in San Francisco

Non-Fiction - Social Issues
192 Pages
Reviewed on 03/07/2020
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    Book Review

Reviewed by Rebecca S Winner for Readers' Favorite

Urban Playground: What Kids Say about Living in San Francisco by Katie Burke is a non-fiction book about fifty children ages five to nine who are growing up in San Francisco. For the first five children, the author asked questions about the makeup of their family. The next group of five children were asked about their favorite food. This questioning pattern continued with the questions being about: heroes, their favorite holiday, their pets, their school, what sports they play, what talents they have, where they like to go on vacation, and what career they think they might have when they are older. After each child's answers there is a section about what can be learned about San Francisco from this child. Then there is always a set of discussion questions that might begin a dialogue between teachers and children, or parents and children.

My favorite thing about Urban Playground: What Kids Say about Living in San Francisco by Katie Burke is the funny things kids say. I learned a lot about San Francisco from this book. I enjoyed finding out how many of the children at this young age are learning other languages. I like that there are several nationalities represented in the children who were chosen. I think the discussion questions are a great way to begin a dialogue with children. I appreciated the humor in the sections where the author summed up what can be learned about San Francisco from the child's answers. It is encouraging to find out that there are children who are out doing sports, walking dogs in parks, going swimming and surfing and not just being attached to an electronic device.