#ReadItMD13 Theme Week - "What do you want to be when you grow up? - Jobs and Vocations in Books"

We'll kick off with "What Do People Do All Day" by Richard Scarry simply because it's such a busy little book. Imagine just about any job on the planet and you'll find one of the folk in Busy Town doing it. We see farmers and policemen, bus drivers, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers all going about their business - and we also find out how things work, where our water comes from, what goes on at a busy airport and all manner of other cool vocations that will inspire little ones to find out more. The book has been updated a few times, most recently and notably to 'gender switch' some of the roles which the book originally had, and update others (some of the jobs may seem a little twee and outdated). 

Stepping up a notch, what would it be like to be a Dentist or a Doctor?

Harriet Ziefert and Liz Murphy's brilliant "ABC" series of books contain lots of references to both vocations. Everything you could ever want to know about being a doctor or dentist is covered in these colourful and cool alphabet books. They're great fun to work through and like all good books, probably trigger as many questions as they answer. 

We've really enjoyed the Tom and Millie books by Guy Parker-Rees and Guy's take on busy working folk, "Whizzy Busy People" is like a love letter to Richard Scarry's style of ultra-detailed and - well - busy books. Tom and Millie want to find out what they want to be when they grow up - and they decide that the best way to do that would be to talk to all their friends and family and find out what they do. They soon find out that there are so many interesting jobs, how could a pair of kittens possibly pick just one?

I love the wonderful spreads in this book and Charlotte loves picking out her favourite characters in each scene (she gets quite obsessed with trying to work out which ones are "naughty" and "nice"). There are several titles in the Tom and Millie range, and they're all fab!

Recently we reviewed Sarah Dyer's brilliant "Monster Day at Work". A great fun look at what it's like to go to work with Daddy for the day and spend some time at the office, drawing important charts, playing on the computer, attending meetings and of course that all important power lunch! With great illustrations and more than a goodly dose of tongue-in-cheek, office drones (such as myself) will love it. 

We'll be dipping into more books about jobs and vocations as the week continues. Join us, suggest your own favourites and we'll try and feature them!

Further reading - suggested by our fab Blog and Twitter followers:

"Sticker Dolly Dressing Dream Jobs" from Usborne (Suggested by Catherine over at StorySnug)