Work: Interviews with People Doing Jobs They Love

Move over, Tuttle Twins, this is the kid lit about work we so desperately need. This book compiles interviews with people who have unique jobs, all over the world. They talk about the skills their work involves, what drew them to it or inspires them, its challenges and meaning.

Featured are real people who transport giraffes in trucks full of trees for them to snack on, Irish beeswax candle makers, a couple who runs an antique toy store in the Bronx. Indigenous tour guides, Dutch flower farmers, Indian muralists, a Korean designer who loves knitting furniture out of rope. People who drive ferries, repair instruments, increase accessibility, take good care of alpacas. A woman who got so sick of having poor experiences with car repair that she became a mechanic herself, and is helping other women do the same.

The book ends with the author and illustrator each describing their own jobs, and includes a guide for interviewing people yourself, a glossary, and open-ended prompts throughout the book.

In a chaotic world full of overnight Amazon deliveries and generative AI “art,” this book is a refreshing depiction of slow living, small business, sustainability, and finding pursuits that allow us to live our values. Also, and perhaps most importantly, I must try a bagel with ricotta and fresh figs in honor of Joe Bagel himself.