This was a great disappointment, and I am sending it back. The pictures don't do justice to this spectular city at all. They are all very close in which is fine for the Bapistery doors, for instance, but the reader gets no - I mean NO - sense of the river and bridges, the vista of the Duomo, etc. The rhymes are worthless - "Donatello...a famous artist and quite a fellow" - I'm sorry to say, providing nothing to inform the young audience. Also, I'm no prude and the "David" is one of my favorite statues in the world, but I'm not sure close ups of this - twice! - in a children's book is really the place to focus. Lastly,to have misspellings of key names is unacceptable - the "Uffize" Gallery and "Da Vince", REALLY? Apologies to the authors - the idea of a children's travel book is great - but this one totally missed the mark.I have taken 11 grandchildren to Italy and any one of them could write a better book on Florence than this one. If there was an editor, s/he napped every few pages right through the typos. The pictures are of generally poor quality and the text can certainly not be called poetry. For instance, how about "The Uffize (sic) Gallery has many statues outside, And Florence is where once Galileo did reside, This is his statue that you can see, Looking as wise as once was he." Flip to the Duomo: "You can see the Duomo on the walk, And you may even stop and gawk. Because this is something that withstood time, Something that is quite sublime." Each of the 17 pages of text has one of these little gems in the middle of lots of white space, and that's what you paid for.I'm perfectly serious when I write that this is possibly the worst example of a book I have ever seen on any subject. Reviews on Amazon are not my habit, but I am a fervent patron and felt it was my duty to steer the rest of the Amazon family away from this useless book.A refreshingly different picture book with historical and geographical information. The simpler poetry is what keeps this history lesson moving right along and my 3 (yes, three!) year old engaged to the end. I'm thrilled! There are more scrubbed up, formal geography books for kids. I've seen them; I own some. But, the kids I read this geography series to (from Penelpe Dyan) eat it up and ask for more! I have had this experience before with well-know publishers of children's reading material, when it baffles my adult brain what could possibly be so engaging to my kids... whatever that "it" is, this book has it. Dyan was a teacher, and perhaps has the mysteries of the child-brain figured out. Bloopers and all, this book is a keeper!I agree with the first reviewer. The poetry in this book is utterly strange. The opening line reads, "To get to Florence you can take a train, After you arrive in Venice by plane". HUH???I could have quoted the whole bizarre book but that would have been too painful.Short and sweet, these books tell a lot in the pictures. Kids giggle at the silliness of the text. I keep them on hand in my classroom. When I'm teaching about a place in the world covered by one of Dyan's books, I know I'm going to get a great picture to put up on the doc-cam. I am particularly taken with the cover photo of a tapestry. I noticed that the pictures are of things that caught my eye when I was visiting some of these places but the photos are so much better than mine. I like the large pictures and the depth and perspective they give. The book on Florence is one of my personal favorites. Each of the travel books gives a great "snapshot" of wonderful locations in the world. When my students tell me they are going to one of those places or just came back, we pull out the book for that place. The other day, one student was reading about Florence and another called out, "Do you have one on Mexico?" Well, it doesn't look like there's one yet, but I'll be watching for it. These books are a nice addition to my classroom library.I have a ton of books by this author and my toddler loves them. I grew up on poems like the ones contained in the authors books and I only wish I could write them as well as the author does. My mother used to make up poems for me as a child. These books bring back memory's of the cute poems that my mother made for me on an almost daily basis. I love being able to share them with my toddler.Really, an embarrassing excuse for a book. Florence has so much to excite and inspire and this book has NONE of it… I’m sorry but there is NOTHING in the book to prepare a child of any age for a trip to Florence. Complete waste of money.