Rosie Revere, Engineer: A Picture Book (The Questioneers)

I love this book. Let me repeat. I love this book and I loathe picture books. This is a book about the glory of failures, the importance of trying, and the necessity of believing in yourself. Rosie revels in inventing, building, and engineering, there's not a princess in sight. The writing has the lilt and flow of a Dr. Seuss book. The illustrations are beautifully done and capture the spirit of the characters perfectly. Rosie is a great book for girls probably from 2-6, The Girl loves it and we've already had to read it several times a day since she received it on Christmas Eve. Emotions of frustration of failure are turned to the triumph of failure in a way that children can relate to. There's enough silliness in the book (all of the inventions seem to involve cheese) to appeal to children, but not enough to make it intolerable to humbug adults like me. Great-great Aunt Rose teaches Rosie a fine lesson when her cheese-copter crashes after hovering for only a few moments. ""Your brilliant first flop was a raging success! Come on, let's get busy and on to the next!" She handed a notebook to Rosie Revere, who smiled at her aunt as it all became clear. Life might have failures, but this was not it. The only true failure can come if you quit." Great message for all children, but especially girls. It's easy to read with high enthusiasm and excitement. I've not read the original Iggy Peck, Architect but I may have to pick it up next time Little Miss Princess starts to rake on my nerves. Definitely, definitely check it out.

Bought this as a birthday present for a 5 yr old girl. She absolutely loved it! Also read this with my old Pre-K class! It is an inspiring story about a young girl and her inventions. It teaches you to keep trying even when you fail and to follow your dreams. Highly recommend and will be buying this for my niece when the time is right.

One of my favorite authors and the woman who inspires me to do my best daily read this book during her women's conference RISE. There wasn't a dry eye in the building by the time she finished reading it aloud, with many of us leaving the room admitting we were going to immediately find the book and purchase it. I don't have children yet, but I have a wonderful, amazing mother who just retired from her role as a Chemical Engineer for over 27 years. This book screamed Mother's Day gift to me and it was a hit, my mom cried while reading too. Andrea Beaty has written a children's novel for children and adults alike. It features an endearing character, Rosie, and her desperate hope of becoming an engineer. It's a whimsical tale told with lyrical words and gorgeous art. It's inspiring, moving, and might even be my favorite children's book I've ever read. Just don't tell Corduroy. I really appreciated that young Rosie has big dreams and even though the dream seems too big, it takes just one person and the perfect words to spark her spirit once again after a failure leads her to calling it quits. I absolutely recommend this children's short and will be purchasing it, and the other two books, for all future baby shower and kid's birthday gifts.

I received Iggy Peck Architect from a friend 3 years ago and have read it so many times my kids (now, seriously tired of it) know it by heart, as do I ("Young iggy peck is an architect and has been since he was two, when he built a great tower in only an hour with nothing but diapers and glue…"). A brilliant extension to that book (notice that on page 3 or 4, there is a picture of Iggy with his classmates, and Rosie is front row near the left), this book not only maintains that AMAZING writing (it is a pleasure to read aloud), but also grounds that narrative in a historical moment and figure (Rosie the Riveter). It is an immensely empowering story for girls that all sexes and ages will love. And, beyond the story and flow of the book, there are a few lines in the book that are just magical--worth of best sentences of the year (seriously). My recollection (I don't do reviews and don't have time to get the book--but Amazon asked for a review and here it is), is of two lines in particular. One is something like, "But thoughts are tricky, and some hold on tight, and this one kept Rosie awake through the night." (and I can't recall the other one, but it is on the same page where it describes Rosie's "obsession" with helping her aunt Rose check off the last box on her bucket list. I like this book so much--as a story of natural mentoring--that I read it aloud to a group of 250 youth mentoring professionals as a conference last month. This book is that good--probably may become a classic like Seuss or Sendak. If this author/illustrator team can create two or three more of these (based on those characters in Ms. Lila Greer's class at Blue River Creek elementary in grade two), this will be a set surely to be loved for generations. It is unlike most other children's book--like Sendak said when Colbert interviewed him, the only reason this is a children's book is because adults looked at it and called it such. For me, this is like poetry--I could read and re-read it several times a day and feel better afterward. Seriously!

Preschool. The other kids will infect your child with more than the occasional rhinovirus. When my daughter started singing "Let it Go" from Frozen and telling me she wanted to be a princess, I knew it was time to add some counter-balance to the other side of the scales. To that end, this book is awesome. It's a fun read, has a good moral and inspires your daughter to do more than just twirl around. After reading the book my little one found a plastic hammer and started "engineering and inventing" things in her room. Perfect! For the record, I'm not against girls who want to be princesses, prance around in gowns and hold tea parties. I just don't want that to be all our girls see is out there for them. In most stories girls/women are either props for the hero boy or obsessed with beauty. IF they do anything of any significance, it's with magic or because they are royalty. Our girls will get fed that nonsense by default, books like this buck the trend and I'm grateful. I also recommend Interstellar Cinderella.

This is a fabulous, fabulous book. The story is told in enjoyable rhyme (a lot of times "rhymes" are so forced it's just painful, but not this book), and the story is important for children and adults alike. The story line explains how Rosie, once a vibrant, vivacious engineer who enjoyed coming up with inventions TO HELP PEOPLE SHE LOVED, has had her confidence shattered by an adult who laughed at the gift she made for him. In all likelihood, he was probably one of those adults who thinks it is perfectly appropriate and charming to laugh at children (as if just because they are children it means we are laughing with them -- they know better). So she scraps her dreams and decides never to invent -- or be humiliated-- again. Along comes her aged aunt (and apparent namesake), who talks to Rosie about the things in life she wishes she had done but never got around to doing. To help her aged aunt fulfill those last wishes, Rosie pushes past her trepidation and invents a flying machine. It crashes to the ground. Rosie is devastated and once again determined to never invent or be embarrassed by her "failures" again. Thank Goodness for her feisty Aunt Rose, who teaches the big life lesson of this book: Success is built on failure, and tenacity. "The machine crashed, yes, but before that, it flew!" It was a starting point to learn from and continuing improving on. "The only true failure comes when you quit." As the mother of a young girl, I also love that the engineer in the story is a girl, but if I had a son, I would still read it to him all the time. This is just a great book. And as adults it IS important to remember how crushing our words and reactions can be to the children who look up to us.

I know this review will be buried in the 4,200+ reviews this book already has, but I just love this book so much. I ordered this book for my nearly 3-year-old daughter for Christmas and she likes it ok. She wasn't super interested in it, but I think that may change later. What did surprise me was just how much my son, who is 5, loves it. Not only does he like it, but he gets the message! I've found that most children's books with messages like this are either too straightforward and thus boring for him, or too abstract so he doesn't get it. HE. GETS. THIS. We've read it at least 5 times in the last 36 hours. This book has it all. It rhymes. It's silly. It's relatable. The illustrations are fantastic. The message is worded in a way that is understandable and relatable, AND it rhymes! The message is about failure and how it's just the beginning. It's about not giving up. This is something my son struggles with if he sees something as "too hard" after the first try so this book is actually perfect for him too!

This book has a great message for children and can be especially encouraging for little girls who are interested in engineering. Children will like the rhyming text and the whimsical illustrations. Adults will enjoy it as well and the sweet message it conveys.