Panther City

by Ayun Halliday, Leni Yow-Fairs (Illustrator)

Long before social media, cell phones, the Internet, expansive gender definitions, or even cable TV, a 3rd grade class collaborated on a paper city. Conceived as a way to make learning fun, the project quickly devolved into an exercise in accusations, subterfuge, and childish vandalism. 



Narrated by 8-year-old Annie, the best girl artist in class, Panther City is both a comedy of manners and an unvarnished recollection of a bygone moment in the pre-Bicentennial American Midwest, as observed by Ayun Halliday, Chief Primatologist of The East Village Inky zine and the author of No Touch Monkey! And Other Lessons Learned Too Late.



Fortified with 8 essential vitamins, a Teacher’s Edition and illustrations by an actual 8-year-old!

114 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2025

About the author

Ayun Halliday is the Chief Primatologist of the long running, award-winning East Village Inky zine and author of the self-mocking autobiographies No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late, The Big Rumpus  Dirty Sugar Cookies: Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste, and Job Hopper. She collaborated with illustrators Dan Santat on the picture book Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo, and Paul Hoppe on Peanut, a graphic novel for young adults. Luddite vagabonds may remember her as the author of the analog guidebook, The Zinester's Guide to NYC.  She is a regular contributor to Open Culture, and freelances both articles and illustrations to a variety of other publications.

Ayun's latest books are Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto and its interactive companion Creative, Not Famous Activity Book: An Interactive Idea Generator for Small Potatoes & Others Who Want to Get Their Ayuss in Gear

She lives in East Harlem with the playwright Greg Kotis.

Reviews

[Andy Apodaca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful piece of work, of art. The common superlatives (funny, witty, poignant) all fit here. I truly did both laugh and cry. I often find that when an adult writes from the perspective of a child, there is some suspension of disbelief necessary. Not so here. When an eight-year old is talking or thinking, it really feels like a child's voice. Which makes the parts that come from a more mature adult's perspective that much more powerful. I absolutely want more of this!

[Ann Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's my advice. Don't read the author's description of this book. Do what I did. Just buy it and start reading it. It begins as a very charming sort of middle school story about a third grade classroom. Then about half way through I laughed out loud as it pivoted to something else equally delightful.

Wonderfully illustrated as well. A joy.

[Rebecca Kuder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m an enthusiastic fan of East Village Inky and Ayun’s other books, so it was simply delectable to steep myself in this book. It’s pure fun (and also there’s deeper stuff)…mostly I just reveled in getting (happily) lost in the moment/world Ayun created. Which I also recall, having been a kid around the same time.

No page numbers! But some bits I loved:

“The saddest movie I ever saw was Born Free. The people in it had Elsa the Lioness since she was an orphaned cub, but in the end, they can’t keep her anymore. They have to let her go off to live with the other lions coz she was born free.”

(FOR THE RECORD: I also LOVED Born Free, as a child, and still. It was a huge part of my childhood, and now I want to go watch & read it again.--Rebecca)

(About vacation from school): “I’m not going anywhere. Mom says a week is too long for her to be bringing me into the newspaper with her, so I have to go to Gran and Grampy’s for all but one day of it. Boo! I miss my friends and there’s nothing to do! At least I get to watch Cowboy Bob. Before him is Gran’s favorite, The Bob Braun Show. It’s so boring. It’s worse than Merv Griffin! The only thing I like is when Bob and the two blonde ladies do commercials for their favorite products. They’re not real commercials. They just hold things up and tell you why they’re such great products. They’re never for stuff you’ve heard of, like in a real commercial. The best ones are Ava Gabor wigs. Bob says they look so glamorous, he wishes he could wear one, too! I don’t think they look very glamorous at all. I like long hair. The only person I know who wears a wig is my other grandma, Teensy. She lives in Arizona.”

[Tami · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Ayun Halliday since her book Wild Rumpus. I have been a subscriber to her Zine The East Village Inky for YEARS! I was happy to see this new book come out and enjoyed it! It was so fun to revisit the 1970s as that is when I grew up too. We actually did something called cardboard carpentry at my school. We did not build a city but built furniture. I remember painting it and sitting at tables. The art work by Leni Yow-Fairs was delightful and a great compliment to the book. Check it out especially if you like kids and teachers!

[Julia Drury Mueller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the library book club's pick this month. I enjoyed it, but I didn't find it very interesting. The back of the book made me think it would be a classroom-set Lord of the Flies retelling, so by comparison it felt like the mundane facts of a random Tuesday, first from an 8-year old's perspective, and then halfway through switching to the teacher's. Like yeah, sure, okay. Maybe if you find a kid swearing to be a sufficient punchline, you're the demographic for this.

[Stephanie Simione · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book for all of us who were children in the 70s (GenX does actually exist.) Ayun Halliday delightfully captures the joys, obsessions, and frustrations of a 3rd grade class trying to do a group project. It’s hilarious, heart-warming, and poignant. The illustrations by young artist Leni Yow-Fairs are perfection. Highly recommend.

[Mary Thomas Draper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Panther City is a wild reminiscent dip back into the 70s. The always clever and funky Ayun Halliday gave us another unexpected trip. While she is an expert illustrator, we get a surprise! The wise and talented Leni Yow-Fairs hits it out of the Panther City ballpark with her spot-on illustrations. Get this book - and Enjoy!

[Michael Harren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved the concept behind this book! The book tells the story of a 3rd grade class from the perspective of a student and then from the perspective of the class's teacher. Lots of laugh-out-loud moments peppered with some surprisingly emotional moments. This was a fun quick read that served to brighten my weekend and kick-start me out of a reading slump.

[Anne Libera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friends get five stars.
What a lovely and well observed picture of the time and space of being in third grade in the early 1970's.

As always, my reviews are a reflection of my experience reading the book and are not meant to be taken as actual critique.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a sweet story that brought back memories of my own Midwestern elementary school days. I agree with another reviewer that it’s best to go in cold without too many spoilers. The second half of the story was a delightful surprise.

[Jessica Gullion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally love this author (her previous books are hilarious), but I don’t think I was the target audience for this one. The drawings are adorable.