Whose Tools? isn’t just for DIY kids, but it helps

Our children immediately identified with Whose Tools?,  a new children’s book that teaches them 24 tools and the professions that use them. The book is surprisingly detailed, features six different contractors, like a mason, carpenter or plumber and has thick pages with simple words that are great for young children.

We do a couple of DIY things around the house each week, but our children only know the very basic tools. Things like screwdriver, hammer and nails are the extent of their DIY vocabulary.

Whose Tools? starts out at the beginning, literally, by letting readers know that it’s a mason who starts building the house down low and that the cement needs to be spread flat. There are illustrations of their tools like the chalk line, chisel, jointer and float. We have everything but a jointer and there is no way that ours would know what a chisel is.  They might guess a screwdriver (and that would be a great guess), but our need for a chisel is limited to door knob installations.

Toddlers will enjoy the book because it’s durable and packed with large, happy illustrations. The level has a smiley face, so does the square, hammer and I think that the saw is saying something to me. When you open the fold that has the pictures of the tools it goes into a double page illustration of the people doing the work.

One way to teach the book is to let the kids learn the words on the first page, then open the fold and have them find the tools being used. It’s the way any new vocabulary is taught, just prompt them with “where is the….?” and once they know the names you can point to it and ask them “what’s that?”

The carpenters are framing the area for the windows, the electricians are doing their thing and the roofers are up on the roof. If you do any DIY then the book’s actions and tools will be familiar to your young readers. If you don’t the book could still be worth checking out because of how diverse it is.

10 years ago a child’s book on construction, its tools and the people that do it might’ve been illustrated by the stereotypical man. In Whose Tools? all of the contractors are varied; some are women, some black, olive colored and white.  It’s a Benetton ad, set to kid friendly illustrations of people building houses and using tools.

It’s a chance to show kids that they really can do anything they set their mind to. Your child or you, don’t have to be Bob Villa-esque to enjoy Whose Tools?, but it certainly helps.

May 4-10 is Children’s Book Week.  There are so many great books for you to read to your children. Regardless of their interest, in this case DIY/construction, there are more than a couple books for them to choose from.