The High Line: A Park to Look Up To

In this accessible, cinematic history, Tentler-Krylov (Building Zaha) shows how New York City’s High Line rallied a community and revolutionized public green space. The book opens with a bang: balletic, digitally enhanced watercolors show a street-level freight train barreling toward the city’s West Side factories as historical residents run for their lives. Elevating the railway in the 1930s helps to alleviate the danger, but the once-bustling tracks are abandoned within 50 years. They fill with wildflowers and grasses in the spring and are blanketed with snow in the winter, creating “a constantly changing, silent, forgotten world in the sky.” When demolition seems inevitable, community members envision a new life for the newly dubbed High Line, and in scenes that give off a stylish, palpable energy and reflect the city’s diversity, they organize, plan, and plant, creating a park that winds its verdant way between high-rises and becomes a model for the world. The author doesn’t sidestep the rapid gentrification brought about by the park’s popularity, ending with the hope that the same indomitable community spirit that made the park a reality will address economic inclusion, as well. An author’s note and timeline conclude. Ages 4–8. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (May)