Book Review: Central Park: Adventures through the Seasons

 Central Park: Adventures Through the Seasons

by Cristina Ergunay, Illustrated by Gareth Lucas

The art style was colorful and unique, with a mix of geometric figures in the background and a pretty portrayal of nature and urban scenes in Central Park in New York City. Readers follow the main character and his dog, but other children are present in the illustrations too. Throughout the book, lots of animals portrayed vividly, like penguins, butterflies, and more

A few pages have rhymes and decodable sentences, like the opening pages (Things to see/follow me!) that early readers could enjoy helping a parent, teacher, or caregiver read out loud. Vivid use of verbs like toddle to describe penguins and twizzle to describe skating.

Facts about Central Park are sprinkled on every other page or so, like about the penguins at the zoo or history of the buildings. The illustrations showed iconic Central Park locations, from the zoo, to Belvedere Castle, to a bridge I’ve seen in lots of movies, and of course, the Angel of the Waters Bethesda fountain.

I would have liked the font to be a bit larger for the pages that described the facts. Maybe it will appear larger in the print edition.

I have visited Central Park before, but I did not see the whole park. There are so many new things to discover, like a castle and the zoo. I learned new things about the park.

Thank you to Abrams Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on April 14, 2026.