Skip to main content

Rosie Revere, Engineer



Rosie Revere, Engineer
By Andrea Beaty
Illustrated by David Roberts

Rosie is an imaginative and resourceful young girl with dreams of someday becoming a great engineer. She uses various odds and ends to create contraptions one might not expect, like hot dog dispensers and helium pants. However, she decides to hide her inventions after her favorite uncle laughs at one she designed especially for him. Her inventions remain hidden until Rosie's Great-Great Aunt Rose arrives for an extended stay. Her excitement for engineering re-ignites when Aunt Rose tells her that after all her adventures, “the only thrill left on my list is to fly". In hopes of helping her aunt, Rosie gets to work creating a flying machine. Her first test run fails with only a few second of air time before it comes crashing down. Rosie feels defeated and ready to give up her dream entirely until Aunt Rose helps her realize that her invention wasn't a failure. On the contrary, it was a raging success! The machine did exactly what she intended it to do, it flew. Aunt Rose reminds Rosie that the only true failure is quitting. 

This book celebrates creativity and individuality with rhyming text, a charming mix of watercolor and ink illustrations, and a clever tie to history with a note at the back of the book connecting Aunt Rose to WWII culture icon Rosie the Riveter. The story will no doubt inspire and encourage young readers to peruse their dreams despite what challenges and failures may come their way. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Faker

Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...

Review: Fresh Start

Fresh Start By Gale Galligan New York: Graphix, 2025. Graphic novel. 270 pages. Ollie Herisson is only in 7th grade, but she has already lived all over the world. Her father is an American diplomat, whose job has taken their family to France, Singapore, Thailand (where her mom is from), and now to Chestnut Falls, Virginia. Ollie loves that her family doesn't stay in one place very long, it allows her to have a fresh start and hide from any embarrassing moments each time they move. But Ollie's parents have big news -- they've decided to buy a house in Virginia and put down roots. Now, Ollie and her younger sister Cat have to figure out how to build lasting friendships which means resolving conflict rather than running away when things get hard.  Loosely based on the author's own childhood experiences, this graphic novel is sure to be popular with readers who like coming of age stories. Watching Ollie learn to think of others as she advocates for her sister Cat, and navig...

Review: Will's Race for Home

  Willl's Race for Home  By Jewell Parker Rhodes Little Brown & Company, 2025. Fiction. 256 pages.    Will is a young man whose father and family are working the land as sharecroppers in Texas. When Will's father comes home with the news that there is land available in Oklahoma to those who can stake and settle it, Will's father expresses his deep desire to go and claim land for their family. Will begs to be included, but his mother is reluctant to let him go. After input from the entire family, they decide that Will is ready for the responsibility. Along the way Will and his father develop a deeper appreciation for each other, form deep friendship, discover hidden enemies, and encounter many challenges which force them to make difficult decisions. Will's father has to rely heavily on him, especially as they get closer to their final destination. Will's bravery is inspiring and commendable.  This book is full of many amazing elements: suspense, adventure, fr...