Urban Interlude

If you've hung out here even a little you know that I'm a pretty rural gal. I live in and grew up in different rural areas. But that doesn't mean I don't like urban areas. I love the energy cities have, I LOVE the restaurants. They're great fun to visit and they always make me appreciate my rural quiet when I return to it.

I've heard people around here complain they hate The City. They are referring to Toronto. I'm grateful my parents took my sisters and I to Toronto starting when we were quite young just so we could experience it. We rode the subway and took in the sights. We browsed the shops and strolled the sidewalks. It was loud, exciting, and confusing. It had rules, it was entirely different from our rural home, but I learned that it could be fun. I ended up working in The City for several years and don't regret that at all.

So where am I going with all this? Last year was my year of writing for education markets, apparently. The last of those projects is now out. The Learn About Urban Life series looks at life in certain cities. I did Life in an Industrial City about Houston, Texas and Life in a Suburban City about  Los Angeles, California.

Thanks to the internet, I could do the research remotely with the help of local experts. I want to thank  veteran author Mary D. Wade as well as amazing photographer and author Sara Jane Boyers for their help and feedback on life in their respective cities. Rest assured that any (gulp) errors are not theirs! Hopefully one day I will get to visit these fascinating places.

Check out the other titles in the series from Crabtree Books: Life in a Commercial City by Trudee Romanek and Life in a Residential City by Helene Boudreau. Here's to helping kids learn about all kinds of places in this wide world.