City at Night

Life for city-dwellers can be intense and challenging, sometimes even alienating. Now that North America's population is strongly urban, most of our children live in the world of the city. But how comfortable do they feel there? This book explores an aspect of city life that most children know least about: how the city functions at night and the role of the largely unknown night worker. "City at Night" features 21 spreads, each dominated by four or five full-color photographs and 150-200 words of descriptive and informative text, with end-papers that feature landmarks from cities all over North America. This book celebrates the life that takes over a city when most of us have gone to bed. The book profiles the ferry pilot in Vancouver, the cop in Manhattan's Times Square, the early morning broadcaster in Toronto, hotel reception staff at Montreal's Bonaventure Hotel, and others. Much of the work that keeps our cities running smoothly is done at night: subway track and road repairs, for example. Other kids of important work are sometimes done during the early hours of the morning, such as the treatment of patients on dialysis. The newsroom, the bakers, the Street Patrol Van volunteers who visit the homeless, the 24-hour grocery store clerks--all help us get through our days more comfortably and safely.

Peter Jestadt is a photographer and videographer who likes to go for long walks in the city at night. Like many of the night workers featured in "City at Night," Jestadt often works until the small hours of the morning, editing video and footage. He lives in Toronto.