“THIS IS NEW YORK” by Miroslav Sasek

Every time I visit a foreign country, I end up going to a bookshop and buying myself books written in English. It is a MUST for me.
However, when I visited Havana, Cuba, I was not able to find any books in English. Not only were they written in Spanish, but they all also had the same authors: Fidel Castro (who was alive at that time) and his brother Raul. It was depressing for me because it reminded me of our lives under communism.

I discovered Miroslav Sasek’s book “This is New York” in an unconventional way. I found it in a boutique in New York that sold different items varying from lotions, clothes, games and books, the only connection between the things was that they were all related to New York in a way or another.

Miroslav Sasek wrote and illustrated an entire series of travel guides aimed towards children. These travel guides showcased different countries, such as Greece, Ireland, Israel, etc. It also presented many cities, such as New York, Paris, and London.
Even though the books were published about 60 years ago, the Universe Publishing house was savvy enough to reprint an updated version, suitable for the 21st century, and they were successful although nowadays it’s quite easy to virtually visit any location in the world from the comfort of your own house.

At the time I have purchased most of Mr. Sasek’ books, I didn’t know that I would be visiting some of the countries and cities depicted in his publications. At that time, I enjoyed reading these books to my sons because together, we learned about beautiful places.
When we were fortunate enough to visit some of the locations, we were surprised that the icon buildings that were illustrated in his books were the same in real life.

Published by Universe Publishing, 2003