I Want to Be a Soldier - Tapa dura

I Want to Be a Soldier displays the variety of a soldier's life. The book begins by informing readers, "Soldiers must be strong, brave, honest and loyal to their country." Next come recruitment, training, and skills like shooting and parachuting. Oddly, the first specific job depicted is a musician in a military band. Only after readers meet a medic and UN peacekeeper do they find a soldier in an armored tank: "They patrol a dangerous area." The last picture shows an excited boy-and-dad reunion. The series, of course, focuses on the upbeat, but its books may still provoke discussion.--Ilene Cooper"Booklist Editors Recommend" (05/26/2012)

Library-bound hardback picture guide to the work of a soldier, reflecting the increasing diversity in society, changing technology and the lives of adults that children come into contact with. This best-selling series of 17 titles has sold more than 800,000 copies since publication and earned excellent reviews and praise for the range of occupations it features. With vibrant colour pictures and plain text, the I Want To Be series is an appealing introduction to a broad spectrum of occupations, from Pilot to Chef to Cowboy, making them ideal for inclusion in Community Helpers and other Common Core Correlations Social Studies and Language Arts units. New photos show Policewomen with contemporary uniforms and stateof-the-art equipment. Firefighters' uniforms protect better; builders are women as well as men; many of the Nurses are male. This reflects the society that kids are seeing now. Mainly, children will enjoy the I Want To Be books for the pictures, reading to themselves, seeing everyday people doing important jobs, like the adults in their family and in their dreams and aspirations.