NONFICTION

This Little Engineer: A Think-and-Do Primer

by Joan Holub (text) & illus. by Daniel Roode
Little Simon. (This Little). Jan. 2023. 26p. Board $7.99. ISBN 9781665912082.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 1–With a cadence that goes minimally to that of “This little piggy,” this book introduces engineers out of real life on the verso: “This little engineer/ hopes we’ll visit Planet Mars/ to live and do work there/ among twinkling stars.” On the right, children meet, in this case, Gwynn Shotwell, the president and COO of SpaceX. They also meet Nikola Tesla, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the Latina astronaut and then director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Ellen Ochoa, and a few others. The wooden digital illustrations are not a bar to entry, servicing the text ably.
VERDICT The emphasis on women engineers, and especially women of color, makes this a delightful starter kit for every lap-sized budding child with access to LEGO sets or Tinker Toys.
Reviewed by Kimberly Olson Fakih , Mar 01, 2023

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