Everybody Works

by Shelley Rotner, Ken Kreisler

Photographs and simple text show the many ways in which work can be accomplished.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

When I was five, I refused to go to kindergarten. I declared it was for babies. I already knew how to read, but what really bothered me the most was that the kids mixed up the paintbrushes and colors at the easel so there was never true blue, red, yellow or green. Every time my teacher turned her back, I left the room and headed to the first grade class diagonally across the hall. Luckily, I had a friend there who happily shared her desk with me until the teacher noticed and sent me back to kindergarten. After many successful escapes, a trip to the principal and some testing, I was officially moved to that first grade class with beautiful autumn leaves painted on the door.

Reviews

[Bri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everybody Works! is a nonfiction story for young students that describes the daily jobs of many people. This text has minimal text with the main focus being on real photographs of workers. Many jobs are explored through this book. Instead of just naming the jobs, this text describes what they do. This text is a good introduction for very young students on different jobs. The real-life photographs can give students a new perspective if they have never seen or heard of these jobs before. For the age range, I think the story may be a little long even if the pictures try to hold your attention. Students will also need to know the names of the jobs even if they are not included within the book. Other book connections could follow similar themes of the lives and similarities of people. I would use this book with young children to introduce different jobs. Then I might have students pick some jobs they have never heard about before so we can research or read more about them.

[Grace Bolin · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Everybody Works' would be appropriate to read with preschoolers through first grade students. The book has limited writing, but many photographs of people working in all different jobs. The book should be read only with young students because older students need more factual information to learn about the jobs included in the photos. This book could be used to start a discussion about the different jobs that people do. Parents or family members could come into the class after reading this book to discuss their jobs with the students and share facts about the profession. Students could then do a writing and drawing assignment about what job they would like to do when they get older.

[Kristen EJ Lauderdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shelley Rotner is fantastic as always. This book has a positive and inclusive description of the various jobs people do in society.

[Sarah Rourke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! It is a simple read with engaging pictures and interesting topics. I personally liked how the pictures were real people working on their real jobs. This makes the book seem more real and relatable as well.

This book could be read aloud for a social studies unit on people's different professions/ jobs. This would be best read aloud to a 1st-3rd grade class. This would be a great book to read aloud because it does a great job of showing the different ways that people work and has engaging illustrations that show real people. I think this will really help students to understand different jobs that people can have. The teacher can explain each profession to the students and what exactly that person does. For example, one of the pages says "Work is caring and protecting". This page shows a police officer, fire men, a vet, and a doctor. The teacher would then explain to the class how each of these jobs either helps protect people or helps care for people but they are still each different in their own way.

This would also be a great book to read aloud when talking about diversity. This book is awesome because it shows people from all different cultures as well as the different jobs they can have. This is great for kids because it shows them how it doesn't matter what color you are or background you come from, you can do whatever you want. This book does a great job showing and explaining how some people work in an office, some work outdoors, some in hospitals or restaurants, and some travel the world but anyone can do whatever they set their heart to. This is an inspirational book that children will enjoy!

[Tyffani Mine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short non-fiction story shows individuals from different communities working and doing everyday duties. The authors Shelley Rotner and Ken Kreisler used kid friendly descriptions to depict work in various ways. Photos taken by Shelley Rotner reveal real life characters in daily acts such as mail carriers, bus drivers, sales clerks, fire fighters, doctors, etc. The cover page depicts a female fire fighter, which is often unseen in children’s books. As a teacher, I will use this text to teach students about work, volunteering, and community service. It could also be used when teaching about words with the -ing suffix such as building, selling, creating, fixing, etc.

[Larissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rotner, Shelley, and Ken Kreisler. Everybody Works. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook, 2003. Print. Ages 6+ The book Everybody Works is a very typical book that discusses and talks about briefly the different professions or ways we work. It isn't the most interesting book which is why children might enjoy it better because it has a lot of pictures and describes and talks about different working professions. Personally, it wasn't my favorite book, but for children I could see how they would like it. It did make me feel really good because of the fact that I was able to really look and see how many different jobs and different ways of working people do.

[Abbi Kraus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is good to teach children about different jobs or the differences between goods and services. I didn't like how this book had women doing smaller jobs than men: cleaning, painting, knitting, fixing a bicycle, while the men were working construction and office jobs. I liked the real pictures.

[Kelley Beatty]

This would be a great book for a neighborhood lesson within a kindergarten and possibly first grade. You could read this book and then have the different occupations come in and talk about their jobs more in detail. Really cute and fun book.

[Sarah A · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really useful book for exploring different aspects of working life covering all career types including stay at home moms/dads. Beautiful illustrations, easy reading. Suitable for preschool and kinder.

[Josie Dipiero · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay. It would be a good way to show kids about jobs out there. I liked the real pictures.