This delightful book for children which is enjoyable for parents to read as well wonderfully teaches us that we are all part of a family here to help each other with the gifts we have been given. For those with Faith, it is a happy way to show that we need each other, and to be grateful for each person, and appreciate what they do to make the world a better place; that each person is, as Pope Benedict said, "loved, willed and necessary."!

This book will keep your little one occupied for several long minutes and then some. Great book to keep in the car or at Nana's house.

I had this book as a child and I loved it. I remember how I used to sit and study the pictures. I remember how much there was to find and see in each one.

Now I find that my 2 year old is just as fascinated as I was with the book, and it's such a wonderful way to explain how so many things work, and what things do.

My only complaint with the book is that it lives at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

I don't know about this version but the original is well bound with heavy paper and just the right size to fill those small laps so they can see every detail.

This book is incredible, hence the 5 stars, but I ABHOR the abridged version and long for the pieces that were cut. Why is this the only version being foisted 'pon us??

Wish I could give this 10 stars. I discovered this book as a preschooler in 1968. My mom would take me to the local library every week. I checked it out from the library and I was hooked. I wanted to check it out at every visit, so my mom had the library order a copy for me. I remember even before I could read the words, I completely understood the story from the illustrations. I still have that original edition. It is tatered but still intact. I bought another copy this year for my preschool sons. They absolutely love it as well as the other Scarry book I had as a child, Busy Busy World. The newer book is the abridged edition. The abridged edition has 63 pages as compared to the ~95 pages in the original. They removed 4 stories from the original: busy (stay at home) mom, water treatment plants, electricity and how we get it, and Sgt. Murphy the Busytown policman. Why? Somebody at the publisher must have had a lobotomy. Anyway, we keep the original up in a closet to read only with adult supervision. The new one is on the shelf, readily accesible to the kids.
This book (even the abridged edition) is an absolute classic.

Set in Scarry's Busytown, this busy, colorful book is organized into eleven chapters that examine its citizens' jobs: Everyone is a worker; Building a new house; Mailing a letter; Firemen to the rescue; A visit to the hospital; The train trip; The story of seeds and how they grow; Wood and how we use it; Building a new road; A voyage on a ship; and, Where bread comes from.

Effective use of color and cross-sections can be confusing for very young kids, but is informative and enjoyable for the curious, and the funny pictures appeal to all. Also, everything is labelled, which is very nice for beginning readers.

Like some other reviewers, I am disapointed the unabridged version is not available.

But, even abridged, this is one of the funniest and most absorbing books in print. This book is full of delightful cutaways showing the internals of houses, streets, and factories. Like most Richard Scarry books, this one explores and explains a world which is fun, colorful, comprehensible, and full of well meaning people.

Five stars is not enough.