Next stop, Chicago! That's the shout from conductor Zschock, who has taken children and their delighted parents on Journeys Around Boston, Cape Cod, New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C. since starting this series in 1999. Over 200,000 copies of Zschock's work are in print—perhaps because Zschock is not only a fine artist but also a committed educator, whose books are embraced by teachers and principals nationwide.

"Journey Around" books are far more than alphabet books. Each page is headed by an alliterative sentence that evokes an important theme. The "L" page reads, "Legend lays blame on O'Leary's cow," and the text below tells the story of Chicago's great fire of 1871. A playful factoid at the bottom of each page expands on the theme. (Did you know that the Chicago Fire Museum stands on the site of O'Leary's barn?)

In each city she visits, Zschock looks beyond the tourist attractions to the community residing there. On the "J" page, readers are invited to "Join hands on life's journey," and told about Chicago's immigrant poor and the settlement houses that were built to welcome them. The "O" page explains how the city's Southside became a destination for freed slaves after the Civil War and celebrates the DuSable Museum, a repository of African American history.