Review Detail

This Little Engineer: A Think-and-Do Primer

Kids Nonfiction 399

What to be when you grow up!

April 30, 2023

Overall rating

4.3

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Learning Value

5.0

How many different kinds of engineers are there? A lot! This board book gives brief introductions to various kinds of engineers by highlighting individuals who worked in the field. From Gustave Eiffel and his amazing tower to Marian Croak, who developed technology that digitized sound to send through the internet, Ellen Ochoa, this engaging book very briefly shows all of the amazing things that engineers add to our daily lives. My favorite bit was the last two pages that say "Building, tech, spacecraft. Games to play. What will you engineer some day?", and thumbnails of a dozen other different types of engineers. As a liberal arts major who found it hard to find a job, I encouraged my own children to go into math and science, so I would have worn out this fun and inspiring book.

Good Points

The words are large, and the pictures bright, with the individuals shown with stylized large eyes, all the better to appeal to babies, who are adorable because of their own proportionately large eyes! There's a good cross section of types of engineering as well as ethnic backgrounds of the people showcased. I appreciated that most of the biographies are of people whose contributions happened fairly recently.

This would make an excellent baby shower gift, perhaps accompanied by nonfiction books for older siblings like Fascinating Engineering Book for Kids: 500 Dynamic Facts! by Maslyk and Awesome Engineering Activities for Kids by Schul, or fiction books like Emma Ren Robot Engineer by Lu and Sweetland and Rosie Revere, Engineer by Beaty and Roberts. It's never too early to point children in the right direction, and we'll need a lot of children to be interested in science and engineering in the years to come!