The Top Job

The Top Job by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, illustrated by Robert Neubecker.

It's career day at school and one little girl hears about all of the amazing and fantastic jobs her classmates' parents have.  When she stands up to tell about her father's job and says he changes lightbulbs, the whole class mocks her.  But she keep right on telling her story about how her father took her with him one day.  She details the equipment he needs, and then readers get to travel to the top of the Empire State Building where her father changes the light way, way up on the tower at the tip of the building.  By the end of the story both the audience in the book and any reader will be cheering for her father and this book.

The illustrations by Neubecker are wonderfully detailed with deep colors and a real sense of action and space.  Wonderfully thick-lined and friendly, they add so much to this book.  Kimmel's words have little humorous touches and a very childlike quality that reads well as the words of a child.  There is a distinct voice to the narrator of the story, which I really love.  She is self-assured and poised, a nice strong female voice.

The text is the perfect length for young elementary children, ages 5-8.  This would work well as a read aloud in a classroom where you are going to discuss careers.