Career Ideas for Kids Who Like Adventure

Describes adventurous careers including airplane pilot, detective, firefighter, oil rig worker, paramedic, ranch hand, and welder, profiles individuals who work in these fields, and provides information on how to prepare for them.

Gr 5-8-These titles take a lighthearted approach to their subjects, offering young people some avenues to explore according to their own interests and skills. Readers are advised not to mark the pages, but they may be tempted to fill in the blanks of the "Get Some Direction" questionnaire. This is followed by fun-to-read descriptions ("The military is no place for a couch potato") of 15 different careers, a list of resources and Web sites, and a personal profile (with photo) of an individual working in the field. In Adventure, a female firefighter talks about the physical challenges and the extended family she has formed with her colleagues. Detective, welder, pilot, oil rig worker, and scuba diver are some of the careers discussed. In Money, an investment banker reveals that her childhood aspiration was to work in a library. E-merchant, technology officer, and venture capitalist are included with other traditional careers such as business manager, lawyer, and advertising executive. Appealing black-and-white cartoons are sprinkled throughout and will draw young people to this series.

Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Reviewed with Diane Lindsey Reeves' Career Ideas for Kids who Like Money .

Gr. 6-10. Entries in the award-winning Career Ideas series are as hands-on and applicable as readers could want. Both volumes introduce the topic of career choices by making a clear analogy to an adventurous journey. Librarians should note the fill-in-the-blanks questionnaire and the interest inventory from which young people subsequently determine their most likely career possibilities. There are also profiles of professionals to give readers a multidimensional view of job benefits and drawbacks. Industrious kids will have fun exploring their options thanks to sharp, lively writing and appealing graphics, and students required to do career research will find useful information to supplement what's available in standard career reference resources. Roger Leslie
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