I grew up with Richard Scarry’s Busytown books. His What Do People Do All Day was one of my favorites. My sons all loved the original Busytown books too. What’s unique about the Busytown books is that not only do they tell simple stories, or explain basic concepts, but everything is labeled. And I do mean everything. I will also admit that sometimes I hated reading these books to my children because each page took forever. There might be about twelve short lines of text, but many trucks, and cars, people and even flowers have labels beside them . The labels make for slow reading, but they do make for great vocabulary in little people. I often recommend these books to parents of struggling and emergent readers.
In What Do People Do All Day, children learn about the world of work. The information is a little dated, and the women are only shown being mommies, working at beauty shops, or being laundresses. (There are a few lines I always change when I read it aloud.) If you can see past those problems, I still think it’s a good book. I don’t know of another that explains how a letter gets from one place to another, or how houses and roads are built, or how paper is made. One story explains where bread comes from, all the way from the wheat field, to the mill, to the grindstones, to the bakery. The illustrations are fairly detailed. Being able to see a cross-section inside of a paper company, the inside of an ocean liner, or how pipes work in a house is a real education. Kids also enjoy the silliness of the illustrations. One baker pig falls headfirst into the mixing trough, and too much yeast in the bread dough makes for huge loaves of bread.
The characters are cats, dogs, raccoons, and pigs. As a fun extra, the older books feature a picture of the character Lowly Worm on every page. It’s fun to hunt for his hiding places.
If you have curious children who want to know how things are made, give the Busytown books a try.
Also See:
The Tom and Pippo Books – Helen Oxenbury
Don’t Take Your Snake for a Stroll – Karin Ireland
What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Day? — Bruno Hachler