Me, a Career?

As kids, we all knew what we wanted to be when we grew up. For me, it was astronaut, then archeologist, then engineer. But when did you start thinking about serious career planning? In high school? During college? In the hard, cold light of the world after graduation, like many college graduates? Wouldn’t it be nice if kids these days had the tools to get started thinking seriously about careers much earlier? Me, a Career? targets exactly that need.

Me, A Career? is a children’s A to Z of career options from Artist to Zookeeper. Refreshingly, the clichéd standards of Doctor and Lawyer aren’t on the list; instead, author Michael Hickman presents a broad range of realistic possibilities, including everyday options like engineer, nurse, and teacher, all the way to the unexpected, but alphabetically inevitable, Xylophonist.

The illustrations are simple and work adequately with the text; while more nuanced imagery might help to illustrate the selected careers, the book works with the existing art. Where it falls the most short, however, is in uneven handling of some of the career options, sometimes at odds with the breadth of the field described. While a career in HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) is afforded two full paragraphs of descriptive text, and the Dentist’s entry is sing-songy with sound effects, the Engineer has barely two lines, featuring little imagery. Some extra planning into the format and content of the career descriptions would not go amiss, and the book would benefit from the inclusion of some relevant, interesting facts about the careers. A handful of errors in grammar and punctuation are also occasionally distracting.

Nonetheless, the purpose and message of the book are timely and admirable, and it could be used as a stepping stone to serious discussion about the future for children.