nerd teacher [books] reviewed Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
Perhaps I'm Tired of This Particular Theme
3 stars
This book is okay. The theme isn't inherently terrible, as it basically tells children to not give up on their dreams. However, I think it's more that I'm tired of the constant resilience themes in children's literature, especially when it creates a fictional version of the self-help genre, which I kind of feel like this does.
This is present in the fact that the story doesn't show the titular character, Rosie, seeking help from anyone. She creates a "failure" invention (which she perceives as a failure because her uncle laughs at it, though he says that he loves it), and it doesn't even give her uncle a chance at any point to discuss with her the problem. She just gives up on things and hides them until her great-great aunt comes to stay, mentioning that she'd love to fly one day.
She tries her hand again at inventing something, fails, …
This book is okay. The theme isn't inherently terrible, as it basically tells children to not give up on their dreams. However, I think it's more that I'm tired of the constant resilience themes in children's literature, especially when it creates a fictional version of the self-help genre, which I kind of feel like this does.
This is present in the fact that the story doesn't show the titular character, Rosie, seeking help from anyone. She creates a "failure" invention (which she perceives as a failure because her uncle laughs at it, though he says that he loves it), and it doesn't even give her uncle a chance at any point to discuss with her the problem. She just gives up on things and hides them until her great-great aunt comes to stay, mentioning that she'd love to fly one day.
She tries her hand again at inventing something, fails, and is about to give up until her aunt expresses to her that failure is part of the process (which the book promptly undercuts as saying "the only true failure can come if you quit," reinforcing a bizarrely negative view of failure while recategorising failed experiments as... lessons learned?). I find it frustrating that the author refuses to de-stigmatise 'failure'; I find it bothersome that these books are presented in the function of children's self-help literature, teaching them to look for the answer on their own with the bare minimum assistance of outsiders.
Again, it's not inherently a bad story, but... I'm just tired of this one theme being the majority of children's literature. There has to be a diversity of thought, and this isn't it.