Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure by Nadja Spiegelman

Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure Reviews

• 
  Calista

  Nice story about the NYC subway stations and getting to the Empire State Building. There is a lot of history of the subway station and lines and other things. I have visited the city and ridden on the subway system so it sparks memories. New York subway system is pretty dingy. I tell you, DC has one of the nicest systems I have been in. It is so clean and open and safe feeling. I took a line out to Prospect park on visit. I remember that one. Still NYC system is amazing.
  
  Interesting that the subway was the focus of the story. I enjoyed the little book and the art was fun. I'm glad I happened upon this.
• 
  Betsy

  While I’m aware that public transport was invented to meet the very real needs of urban commuters, when you’re the parent of a city child you can be forgiven for taking an entirely different view of things. Simply put: subways were created for the sole purpose of amusing children. How else to explain the fun maps, bright colors, and awe-inspiring bits of machinery? We already knew that kids loved trains. Now put those trains underground. That’s just awesomeness redoubled. Here in New York City a certain level of excitement about subway trains is almost required of our kids. Yet when it comes to books about the subway system, it’s often disappointing. Either it’s too young, too old, or like
  Count on the Subway by Paul DuBois Jacobs it gives the subway lines the wrong colors. Sure
  Subway by Christoph Niemann is the gold standard, but what can you offer older metro fans? Lost in NYC by Nadja Spiegelman hits that sweet spot for the 6-10 year old crowd. Visually stunning (to say nothing of its accuracy) with abundant factual information wriggled into every available crevice, you don’t have to be a New Yorker to enjoy this book (though, boy, does it sure help).
  
  When you have a father that moves your family all over the country, it can be easy to disconnect from the places you briefly live. So when Pablo enters Mr. Bartle’s class on the first day of his new school, he rebuffs cheery Alicia’s attempts at friendship. On this particular day the class is taking a field trip to the Empire State Building. Pablo learns about the subway system that will take the class there alongside everyone else, but when he and Alicia are inspecting a map on the subway he’s briefly confused and takes her with him onto the express 2 train and not the local 1. Now separated from their class, the two kids start to fight and next thing you know they have to find their way back to their classmates entirely on their own. Backmatter and a Bibliography of other subway resources appear at the end.
  
  I'm an adult so after reading this story several times you know whom I feel most sorry for? The teacher, Mr. Bartle. Here the man is, taking his class on a routine subway trip, and along the way he loses two of them at the very first stop. A common New Yorker nightmare is the idea that you might lose your child on the subway. Yet in Spiegelman and Sánchez’s hands it’s a nightmare turned into an adventure. It’s the same reason
  From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler continues to be read. For children, the thought of being independent in a city as vast as NYC is as enticing as it is horrific. Spiegelman does give Pablo a native guide for the first part of his journey, but pretty soon they two are separated and he has to make his way on his own to his group. This is by no means an interactive book, but I had to withhold a scream when Pablo jumped the 7 train at 42nd Street. He’s lucky he asked for traveling advice as early as he did, else he would have ended up in far distant Queens relatively quickly.
  
  Spiegelman’s writing holds up for the most part. It’s a slim story, clocking in at a mere 52 pages which is only slightly more than your average picture book. Some of that is rounded out with the backmatter too. Filled with history and brimming with photographs, engravings, and other stunning images, Spiegelman outdoes herself with the information found there. For certain subway buffs, the info included (with sections like “Why Are There No H, I, K, O, P, T, U, V, W, X, or Y Trains?”) will be particularly pleasing. However, when we look at the story in this book by itself, it does come to a rather abrupt halt. Pablo spends the greater part of the story declaring that he doesn’t need friends. He parts from Alicia on angry terms, yet when the two are reunited they act like the best buddies in the world. I wasn’t quite sure where the switchover on this relationship occurred. Otherwise, everything seems pretty certain and consistent.
  
  Not all subway books are created equal. I remember years ago encountering a NY subway picture book where a normally elevated stop was pictured in the book as underground. Certainly the cover of this book gave me hope. It seemed to be acknowledging from the get-go that the 1 and 2 trains both stop at 96th, 72nd, and 42nd Street (we will ignore the peculiar inclusion of a “33” since we can assume artist Sergio Garcia Sánchez meant 34th Street). As it happens, Mr. Sánchez is a resident not of one of the five boroughs but of Spain. You wouldn’t know it. The New York found within these pages feels so real and so contemporary that I have difficulty understanding that I’m not going to run into the man on the street when I leave for work tomorrow morning. Artists could learn a thing or two from his attention to detail. From the color of the painted columns to the diversity of the city streets, this is indeed the New York I know and love.
  
  The design of Lost in NYC is also a delight to the eyes. Good graphic novels for children are rare beasties. Half the time you’re left wondering if the editors or artists ever took the time to look outside the standard panel format. If Mr. Sánchez feels inclined to use panels in this book, you can bet it’s a strategic decision. The very first page is almost entirely open, only settling into panels when the kids are approaching the rigid format of a school setting. As the teacher, Mr. Bartle, begins to introduce subway history, we see the characters on a massive topographic map. It’s a visual approximation of the cut-and-cover technique used to create subways in a city chock full of hardened bedrock. Once the kids go underground the panels shift to full two-page spreads, and lots of individual vertical panels like the cars on a subway train. When called upon to render the city blocks in such a way where you can see the characters all converge on the Empire State Building from different directions, the artist either shrinks the buildings and blows up the characters, or he overlaps a subway map onto a street map and you can see the kids meet up that way. Then there are the perspective shifts. The view up into the Empire State Building, a wall or two cut away so that you can get a visual sense of some of the seventy-three elevators in the building, is dizzying. I can say with certainty that even if a child were incapable of reading English (or Spanish, since this book is being simultaneously translated) they would still be able to be moved and stirred by this story.
  
  He’s also filled the book with inside jokes. I was so pleased that I took time to read the “Behind the Scenes: Sergio and the Cop” section at the back of the book. In it, Sergio describes a time he visited NYC and was photographing all the details at the 96th Street subway stop when a cop started paying a little too much attention to him. As a result, if you look in the book you can find Sergio and the cop on “virtually every spread.” Once you see it, it cannot be unseen. It also creates a kind of touching secondary story as the two go from antagonists to, finally, taking a selfie together.
  
  Accuracy in illustration, even (or should I say especially?) in fictional stories, is imperative. You have to make the reader inhabit the setting presented, and the best way to accomplish this is through rigorous research and skill. Mr. Sánchez has both and by pairing with Nadja Spiegelman he may well earn himself an Honorary New Yorker decree. Though filled to its gills with accurate Manhattan details, you don’t have to live anywhere in the five boroughs to recognize the fear that comes with having to navigate an unfamiliar public transit system. Particularly if you’re just a kid. An adventure tale wrapped around a nonfiction core of subways subways subways. What’s not to love?
  
  For ages 6-10.
• 
  Rod Brown

  A fun little romp through the New York City subway system. What a massive undertaking -- to build and navigate. I only wish the rest of our country had such a commitment to public transit.
• 
  Allie

  I read this not too long after it came out. I wasn't blown away but there were a couple of really clever frames.
  The Secret Science Alliance had a similar vibe, but I was a lot more impressed with that book.
• 
  Alex Baugh

  I guess because I am a born and raised New Yorker, I love to read books that take place in NYC, so I was pretty excited to see a book called Lost in NYC, A Subway Adventure. The premise is simple enough - new kid to the city Pablo isn't very happy about his family's latest move to NYC's Upper West Side and has a real unfriendly, resentful attitude. His first day of school also happens to be the day his new class is traveling by subway to the Empire State Building and, as with all class trips, he is assigned a partner named Alicia.
  
  Her helpfulness and his indifference help get the two separated from the class and a subway adventure begins as Alicia and Pablo try to reconnect with the rest of the class. But then Pablo gets separated from Alicia and he finds himself lost and alone in NYC, in fact the loneliest he has ever felt. Will he ever find the rest of his class and will they still be as friendly as when he first met them, especially Alicia?
  
  Along with Pablo's subway adventure to the Empire State Building, there is a lot of information including a brief history of the former world's tallest building and how the subway was build. NYC is in the midst of building a Second Avenue subway, which is an underground train and, since Manhattan is all hard shale rock, there was blasting and drilling for way too long. But it was interesting to find out about all it is all done.
  
  Lost in NYC is a great book newcomers to the city like Pablo and his family, and for anyone who wants to visit but feels intimated by the subway system. The text does a wonderful job of showing how crowded and busy the trains are and Spiegelman and Sánchez been true to the different trains lines, explaining the difference between local and express, platforms where you can change from one train to the other.
  
  And I love that they used the actual subway map as their background, not just for the inside front and back cover, but they incorporated it into the story. And many of the images give a great, realistic overview of different parts of the subway as they relate to the story.
  
  This colorful graphic novel gives a wonderful perspective of the story that should appeal to young readers whether they live in NYC or not. Sánchez drew the graphics in orange pencil and ballpoint pen, and they were digitally colored by Lola Moral. The muted colors used are a perfect counterpoint to the bright colored lines that indicate the subway routes Pablo encounters on his subway odyssey.
  
  Be sure to look at the back matter, that includes information about the authors, the beginnings of it all, including subway construction, and a bit more history about the Empire State Building Lost in NYC is a delightful graphic story about adjusting to new surroundings, a new school and making new friends, not always an easy task for young kids.
  
  New York City kids learn how to ride the subway at a young age . I was pretty young when I went on my first solo ride, going from Brooklyn to Manhattan to visit my dad at work in the Museum of Natural History, and my Kiddo rode the subway every day to school when she was at Bard High School Early College. But I can understand how people could be intimated by the NYC subway, after all there are 488 stations servicing two lines that have a total of 22 subway routes - 7 numbered and 15 lettered routes. But if you come to NYC, get yourself a metro card, a subway map and if you really get lost, any New Yorker will be more than happy to help you find your way.
  
  This book is recommended for readers age 8+
  This book was borrowed from the NYPL
• 
  Samantha

  Part history of the New York subway system, part new kid in a big city, part seek and find, part friendship story, this book has it all. Pablo begins yet another new school and is paired up with Alicia on the class field trip to the Empire State Building. Alicia is very welcoming, but Pablo has his defenses up because he's afraid that making a friend at this new school will make it difficult when his family moves again (which he believes they will).
  
  The pair becomes separated and must use their street smarts to make it to the Empire State Building to meet up with their class. What follows is a fabulous tour of the city and a happy ending.
  
  Back matter includes info regarding how the authors approached this book, including a cool seek and find aspect detailing the artist's own experience visiting the city, a history of the subway system complete with photos and drawings, and a look at a current subway project in the works.
  
  Highly recommended read for grades 3-5.
• 
  Paula

  I am buying this book for my whole family. I am possibly flying to Spain to get the artists to sign it. I am certainly bringing it with me to Book Expo at the end of the month to get the author to sign it. I may show up at her apartment. Sorry in advance, Nadja Spiegelman. You don't know me but I am not dangerous.
  
  I am, however a giant fan of the New York subway. When I moved to New York in 1994, I was so intimidated by the train I could have cried. And when I quickly discovered that not only is it easy to figure out, but people are extremely kind when you ask for help, I could have cried again. Most New Yorkers are to some extent subway nerds - they have opinions on the art that appears in the stations, the new design of the map (it'll always be the new map to some people), and which stations are best to switch at. I love subway conversations - the subway is the common denominator for all New Yorkers. Not every city has one.
  
  And the art. Is the coolest. Wow.
• 
  Megan

  I found this book really recently for a dollar at my local library. I decided to buy it because I'm a sucker for little graphic novels (especially ones set in New York City!). This tells the story about Pablo, a new student, who goes on a field trip to the Empire State Building with his new friend Alicia.
  
  This book wasn't a bestseller or anything, but for the story that was provided in it about the city (with its facts and essentially celebrating New York) and dealing with constant changes in one's life (told through Pablo's experiences), I quite liked it. It was cute and silly and for the actual intended audience of middle schoolers, it would teach them a lot about different things in New York City (specifically the subway and the Empire State Building). I also liked the little bonus story about the artist and the cop. It was fun to go through the book and find them like in "Where's Waldo?".
• 
  Diz

  I really loved the illustrations in this book. The crowded subway platforms, the teeming city streets, and the fascinating cutaways of the subway system really bring New York City to life. The story, which focuses on a child who has just moved to New York, provides an easy to follow exploration of the New York City subway system. This is a great read for kids who are interested in trains.
• 
  Rachel

  Cute! The art is cute and detailed. Anyone familiar with NYC will recognize at least some places. The story is not nearly as detailed, but probably fine for kids.
• 
  Amy

  This is a fascinating look at the New York City Subway system, as told from students, Alicia (a long-time resident of the city) and Pablo (someone who's just moved to the city). This somewhat intimidating mode of travel is a necessity for millions of New Yorker's who use this to move about the city on a daily basis.
  
  On the end paper at the beginning of the book is a detailed map of the subway system. The end paper at the end shows a detailed map of the city and where the characters were throughout.
  
  At the end of the book is a brief history of the New York Subways, including names of the trains and why certain letters do not exist, in the names of the trains.
  
  On the last page of the book, we learn that this is a "Toon Graphics" novel. This type of story is a graphic novel where the text and pictures are both created / produced by the authors. When the authors are also the artists, they can more effectively convey their creative vision with both pictures and words. This is a great tool for visual learners, like me. After reading this once, I went back and looked at everything, again. I picked up even more information, the second time around. Hint: Look at the pictures -- there are sometime pictures within pictures.
  
  Excellent!
• 
  Jess

  Wonderful.
  A decent story about friendship within a book that's a love-note and explanation of NYC, the Empire State Building, and the Subway system. The well-done illustrations deserves all sorts of superlatives. They clearly inform, show movement and city life, and are fun to look at. The sort of pages that make you go slow and think at the close--let's reread that!
  Visually one of the best kid graphic novels I've seen. Highly recommended.
• 
  Claire Talbot

  really enjoyed this graphic novel - aimed at older elementary, but works for middle school or interested adults as well. Loved the facts!
• 
  Melissa

  Nice story; great vehicle for lots of information. End notes were terrific; I just wish more of them ended up in the main text somehow.
• 
  LibraryCin

  Pablo and his family have just moved to New York City. His first day at his new school, he discovers the class has a field trip planned on the subway to the Empire State Building. Although he is paired up with a buddy, Alicia, they get a bit lost when they accidentally get on the wrong train!
  
  This is a graphic novel and it was very good. There is history of the subway and the Empire State Building, along with real historical photos included. I’ve only been to New York once (and I was on the subway, but found it pretty confusing!), but found the information really interesting. The story itself was also about friendship, but really I think the point was the historical information (geared toward younger readers, but still really interesting).
• 
  Adele

  The title is a bit misleading - only one person is actually "lost" and only for about five minutes - but this is still a fun and educational little book. There is a short, sweet story about a new kid in a New York City school going on a field trip to the Empire State Building on his very first day. The story itself is full of information about the subway, both history and how to get around on it, and the Empire State Building, and there is also an afterword with more detailed information on both. There is even a bonus activity from the About the Creators page where you can search through the pictures for the illustrator and a curious cop.
• 
  Tena Edlin

  Interesting, cleverly-drawn book. I learned a lot about the subway system in New York. Teachers, beware. When the kids get separated from their class field trip, I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack. 😬😬😬 That is one of my worst nightmares!
• 
  Beverly

  A NYC class of students takes a field trip to the Empire State Building. The story is interesting and slightly suspenseful as two of the students get separated from the class. The illustrations in this graphic picture book are extremely detailed. The illustrator even included in the illustrations depictions of himself taking pictures with his phone while being shadowed by a NY cop.
• 
  Eddie

  Nice story about getting lost and feeling like you don't belong somewhere, loved the images they represented NYC very well with the colorful diversity and the intimidation of so many people trying to get somewhere, fast.
• 
  Rachel Hyland

  A fascinating history of New York City's subway is interspersed with the story of new kid at school, Pablo, who is not having a good day. Perfect for the train-obsessed -- and the Manhattan-obsessed. The illustrations of the subway are particularly well-done.
• 
  Engel Dreizehn

  Captures the hassle and bustle of traveling in the big city of New York and educating/delight for kids to read + learn about the subway way system.
• 
  Jo Oehrlein

  The NYC subway, the Empire State Building, and the importance of friends and home.
  
  New student Pablo and his buddy Alicia get separated from their class on a field trip to the Empire State Building.
• 
  Jessica

  3.75 stars. As a person who very rarely takes trains, and who lives in a city with really only a few lines, the subway system of NYC was very confusing to me, and not something that I enjoyed (who knew there was such a thing as train traffic?!). So I thought that
  Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure: A TOON Graphic was a neat (and short!) little book about a new boy named Pablo who moves to NYC and goes on a subway field trip to the Empire State Building.
  
  The perspective in the book was cool and unique. The characters were larger than life compared to the urban landscape, and Spiegelman also displays the characters in multiple places of the same scene, which moves along the action while keeping the book quite short. I love the information about the history of NYC and its subway system, and the little maps of different lines--quite informative for anyone visiting or moving to NYC. But it was really TOO short--the characters changed their minds and feelings way too rapidly. That's really the only thing I didn't like about it. There wasn't much to get into how difficult it is to move around a lot, and going from lost to found took pretty much two pages.
  
  Also, I feel like I shouldn't even mention this, but this is the first book I've read of
  Nadja Spiegelman, who is the daughter of
  The Complete Maus author
  Art Spiegelman. Her work more than stands on its own, and her style is also completely different.
  
  Ages 6+
• 
  Maggie

  This book is great! It was eye candy and I had to pick it up. Also, I thought it would be a good book to share with my little reluctant reader; and it was.
  
  I grew up in New York and traveled the subway almost everyday. I remember going places with my mom, thinking how complicated the subway was and how great it was that it connected so many places. It was great and scary at the same time; but it got easier and less scary as I grew up and I could navigate it on my own.
  
  This book is appealing for the nostalgia factor, the art and the maps! Subway maps are so colorful and excellent reference sources. I love following routes, planning trips, etc. Check out the map on the inside front cover!
  
  As I read with my child, I try a variety of books in the hopes that he will pick them up and read by himself. This book made that easy as it is so appealing. I read it first and then left it on the table for him to find. It worked. He picked it up, declared he'd read it later and then actually read it on his own. Afterwards, I read him “Behind the Scenes: Sergio and the Cop” which, of course, compelled him to go back and checkout the second plot line. We had such fun with this book!
  
  And the artwork, the layout of the scenes - fantastic! I am always impressed by the art in graphic novels and this one stands out because of the way the artist drew the scene(s). Characters are in motion (in a sense), maps and buildings are in the background and you can trace their paths easily as the story progresses. Playing where are Sergio and the Cop makes for lots of fun and provides an opportunity to appreciate the art in all its variety.
  
  I recommend this book for everyone, especially for reluctant readers.