A loving adult answers the question from two young girls, "Can a princess be a firefighter?" This is an important question, because it deals with hopes and dreams for the future. As adults we always try to show children the wide range of choices that will be open to them, so the narrator in this book lists a wide variety to choose from. Everything from astronaut to crime fighter is named in the text and shown in the illustrations. The reassurance at the end is a nice touch, "whatever you pick...you will always be a princess to me." But I think that the statement, "It's important that you like your job. It should make you happy every day." is an even more important message to get across to young readers.
The illustrations by Mateya Arkova show the girls dressing up for many of the careers mentioned, or imagining them in thought bubbles. One interesting thing about the pictures is that the adult's face is never shown. Everything is shown as if from a child's viewpoint so that the tops of the illustrations end near the tops of the girls' heads. That's a way to make sure that the focus is on the girls and their exploration of what they want to be when they grow up. It also leaves the identity of the narrator up to the reader's interpretation. Is it a mother, father, grandparent, teacher? It could be any of those or some other important adult in a child's life. As an aunt with many nieces, I appreciate the wide range of jobs mentioned in the book and the fact that they include options that might be shown as "boys only" in some books from previous decades.
I received copy of this book from the author for review purposes.
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