Jackson PearceEllie, Engineer

They complained before we started taking turns reading the pages of this book. They are 6 and 9. They are mostly in love with the comic book style reads, and I want them to broaden their choices. The next day I suggested a different book to read together, and they begged to keep reading this book. I'm sure it would be an excellent choice for girls, but my grandsons also need some reinforcement that girls are inventive and creative, as well as boys. This book provides a great balance as "Ellie" enlists the help from a neighborhood boy in her latest plan. They both now love "Ellie"

My daughter and I loved this book! Great characters and I loved how it was not gender exclusive, girls and boys can do anything, work together, play together, build together. It was great, can't wait to read the others with my daughter.

Great read for inquisitive girls !

This is a great chapter book, my 5 year old loves it!

Great book to inspire young girls.

We have all three of the Ellie, Engineer books and love them so much. Sure we love them because they're cute stories without any crass humor. Sure we love them because our child's name happens to be Ellie. But the real reason these books are so special is that they depict girls and boys as people who can be interested in more than one thing.I don't want to downplay the fact that the boy (Toby) is also a well rounded character, but what really struck me was that was that this is a book about a girl who likes to wear sparkly dresses and look pretty but *also* likes to engineer things. In so many books and movies for all ages including adults, female characters especially are pigeon-holed into one characteristic. This is the pretty girl, this is the sporty girl, this is the nerdy girl. It's incredibly refreshing to read about a real child because this is exactly what real people are like - my girls like to wear dresses and sometimes high heels and makeup and then climb a rock wall and swing down on a rope swing and then make oobleck and crack open dinosaur eggs. These books even address the stereotypes assigned to the genders and encourage kids to just be what they want to be and like what they want to like. So yes, these books are our favorite.Also, our daughter is 7 (2nd grade) and has an average reading level for that age and these are books that I read to her, not that she can easily read herself.

Ellie Engineer is a middle grade novel by Jackson Pearce, and is the first book in a new series about a girl who loves to build. Ellie is an engineer. With a tool belt strapped over her favorite skirt (who says you can’t wear a dress and have two kinds of screwdrivers handy, just in case?), she invents and builds amazing creations in her backyard workshop. Together with her best friend Kit, Ellie can make anything. As Kit’s birthday nears, Ellie doesn’t know what gift to make until the girls overhear Kit’s mom talking about her present—the dog Kit always wanted! Ellie plans to make an amazing doghouse, but her plans grow so elaborate that she has to enlist help from the neighbor boys and crafty girls, even though the two groups don’t get along. Will Ellie be able to pull off her biggest project yet?Ellie Engineer is a wonderful story about friendship and being yourself. It also covers the changes in friend groups and friendship dynamics in those in between years when boys and girls tend to separate. Ellie and Kit are different, but they are still best friends with a love of building. When things are not going according to plan Ellie needs to adjust, and keeping her doghouse a secret from Kit- and getting help from those she does not ordinarily spend time with during the summer, leads to a series of problems. I liked Ellie's flexibility ith her projects, and how she gets things done, and I sympathized with her attempts to keep everyone happy, when she should have just been honest with everyone from the beginning. I think young readers will relate to at least one character in the story, even if it is not Ellie. Some might connect with Kit feeling left out, or those helping Ellie but being kept a secret from each other. I love that the book includes information about the tools Ellie uses in the story, and those that readers might get access to, and permission to use. The how-tos and information just might get readers making their own inventions, and testing or repairing gadgets of their own.Ellie Engineer is a fun middle grade read that encourages friendship and ingenuity outside the normal limits most kids feel constrained by. I found the emotion and social queues to be on point, and I loved the message of the story.

My 8 year old son really liked this book. He had no problem with a girl being on the front cover (the world has girls in it right?). He was drawn to the engineering part. It was a really good fit for him. I hope this author writes more engineering books and some with boys as lead characters too. I encourage my son to read books with both girls and boys as main characters, so he will be ok raising both when he grows up. No point in acting like the other gender does not exist in kid's books! XX and XY are about 50/50 in the population so I think books should show that.I also appreciate books like this that are not too caught up in gender stereotypes (which does not help anyone and causes people to be shoved and pressured into way too many boxes). Having a science degree and being a female myself, I want my son to see that girls don't have to fit some box or dress like a tom boy or transition to male in order to be both capable and intelligent. Girls come in variety and any of them could end up being an engineer depending on their talents, work ethic, and personality. I must say this approach, of showing even girls wearing pink can be engineers and not making out intelligent women to all be tom boys, is very refreshing.

Ordered this book based on reviews as a "reserve for later" for my 6 year old bookworm. It arrived yesterday, she started it as soon as she found it this morning. She picked it up again this evening, I have no idea what's inside but she is totally immersed in it, so much so that i'm not calling bedtime. Negative point: it will be finished within the next few minutes.

Both my daughters loved this! (8 and 5.) Will be on the look out for more. 😊