Review: Ellie, Engineer by Jackson Pierce

Ellie, Engineer by Jackson Pierce

The hilarious and smart start of a series about a girl who loves to build—STEM-powered, creative fun for girls.

Ellie is an engineer. With a tool belt strapped over her favorite skirt (who says you can’t wear a dress and have two kinds of screwdrivers handy, just in case?), she invents and builds amazing creations in her backyard workshop. Together with her best friend Kit, Ellie can make anything. As Kit’s birthday nears, Ellie doesn’t know what gift to make until the girls overhear Kit’s mom talking about her present—the dog Kit always wanted! Ellie plans to make an amazing doghouse, but her plans grow so elaborate that she has to enlist help from the neighbor boys and crafty girls, even though the two groups don’t get along. Will Ellie be able to pull off her biggest project yet?

Illustrated with Ellie’s sketches and plans, and including backmatter with how-tos, this is full of engineering fun!

Pages: 192

Format: Hardback

Published By: Bloomsbury USA

Genre: MG - Realistic Fiction

Rating:
✮✮✮✮

Review:

Ellie, Engineer by Jackson Pierce is a cute, quick read about a young girl, Ellie, who likes to build and design inventions. This book is one that I would consider a must-read for parents with young children because of the attack on our societal view of how young girls and boys should act, and what they should like. It has such a positive message for today's children.

Ellie is very active about likely, something as a society is considerably more "boyish", and at points in the novel, she even states that she likes it, and therefore it cannot be "boyish" to paraphrase. It also mentions a boy liking tea parties. It just brings a huge impact about how what we enjoy should not be defined by girlish or boyish, but just accepted as an event that children like.


I would highly recommend Ellie, Engineer to parents with young children, who are more likely to be impacted by the positive message in the book. I also think that it's a great read for adults and young adults who enjoy reading MG books.