![]() ![]() This will fill curricular demand, but don't expect it to launch any astronaut's career.It is especially sad that he passed away during the Marshall McLuhan Centenary, as he was McLuhan's closest collaborator and greatest influence during the years that McLuhan formulated his most seminal work that led to the publication of The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media. Despite the title, astronaut is the last choice before the book ends with the assurance, “I can be any of these things, but I don't need to decide just yet.” The text is somewhat longer than the attention spans of most board-book listeners, and though written from the child's viewpoint, with terms like “blockbuster action movie,” the language sounds like an adult speaking. Both books have three lines of text per page describing the adventures each job offers before the refrain, “Or maybe I want to be.” Vague adjectives like “awesome” and “really cool” are wasted opportunities to add information. In I Want to Be a Lion Tamer, published simultaneously, which presents the same two children imagining careers with animals, the girl is often shown in caregiver roles (pet groomer, dog walker), while the boy's career choices are more action-oriented (animal rescue, safari guide). The viewpoint alternates between a blonde girl and a dark-haired boy, which is a nice nod to gender diversity, but the book fails shockingly on ethnic inclusion-both children are white. These are not everyday occupations: a race car driver, a stuntman, an archaeologist, a submarine commander. Worst, when it comes time to pour on the raspberry sauce at the end, a second, smaller cake suddenly appears atop the first-since layers were previously unmentioned, readers will be hard-pressed to know which layer they have measurements for and which they don’t.įuture chefs may enjoy flicking the moving parts back and forth, but only grown-ups who know their ways around a cookbook are going to get a passable sponge cake from this.Ī board book attempts to answer the age-old question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” ![]() Moreover, the direction to put the cake pan in the oven is mistakenly repeated on a later page. Prospective bakers are also instructed during the preparation to separate egg whites and yolks without being shown how. Though it is a common practice in international recipes (this is a French import), real beginners may be confused to see the flour and sugar quantified in “cups” in English measure but “grams” in the metric equivalents. Baumann only suggests adult help for this last step-leaving everything else, including taking out the hot pan and flipping it over, to the child. With sliding tabs, a stream of sugar pours into a bowl as readings on a scale change, a mixer and a spoon can be moved back and forth, and temperature and time set on an oven. In the cartoon illustrations, cute mice in toques pose next to the required bowls, kitchen implements, and ingredients. Sturdy sliders invite budding bakers to measure out flour and sugar, mix ingredients, and decorate a four-egg “let’s pretend cake!”Ī “pretend cake” is the only sort that will come out of this recipe. Skin tones are not always realistic, but they are varied, and there is careful gender distribution among the professions.Ī pleasant introduction to the concept of careers. These illustrations have a cubist flair and off-primary color palette that set them apart from typical board books. For example, "He is brave, wears a special suit, and drives a big red truck" can really only point to a “firefighter.” The flaps are large and sturdy and add to the illustrations when lifted. The clues are basic enough that even very young readers will be able to make a solid guess. The book's final double-page spread describes the importance of all the jobs and how they all come together to make a community work. These jobs are quite varied, ranging from teachers to construction workers to doctors. Upon lifting the flap, readers are presented with an image of an adult and that person’s profession. In this lift-the-flap book, little readers are asked "Who's that?" and then given a few clues to who could be under the flap. Little ones explore the different jobs they may aspire to.
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