Why Humans Work: How Jobs Shape Our Lives and Our World (Orca Think, 6)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I bet you've been asked that question before. But have you ever thought about why humans work? There are almost 3.5 billion people working in the world today, and that number is growing. In Why Do We Work? author Monique Polak investigates the past, present and future of jobs, including how work has also been shaped by discrimination, privilege and child labor. Meet a variety of working professionals and explore why we have careers, vocations and professions. How is the way we work changing, and what will it look like in the future?

The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Monique Polak is the author of over 30 books for young people including Just a Minute: Why Humans Tell Time, Remember This: The Fascinating World of Memory and What World is Left. She is a three-time winner of the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Children’s and YA Literature, now called the Janet Savage Blachford Prize. Her work has also been nominated for prizes such as the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction and the Arthur Ellis Award. She lives in Montreal.

Suharu Ogawa is a Toronto-based illustrator. Her love for drawing started in a kindergarten art school after being kicked out of calligraphy class for refusing to convert to right-handedness. Formally trained in art history and cultural anthropology, she worked for several years as a university librarian until her passion for illustration called her out of that career and into the pursuit of a lifelong dream. Since then, Suharu has created illustrations for magazines, public art projects and children's books, including All Consuming: Shop Smarter for the Planet, Cities: How Humans Live Together and Why Humans Work: How Jobs Shape Our Lives and Our World. She also teaches illustration at OCAD University in Toronto.