First In Book Series, ‘Ellie, Engineer’ Celebrates Girlhood And STEM
The cover of a new book for middle-grade readers features a young girl, with messy hair tucked under a pair of safety goggles, wearing a skirt under her tool belt.
The book is called “Ellie, Engineer,” and it’s the first in a new series of books that embraces the joy of childhood friendships, girlhood and dismantling household appliances.
“When I was little, I loved pink and sparkles and ballet class …” Atlanta-based author Jackson Pearce tells “City Lights” host Lois Reizes, “… and power tools and building things. But especially when I was younger, I felt like I wasn’t allowed to like all of those things. There was this very real idea that you could like ‘girl stuff’ or ‘boy stuff.’”
“It wasn’t until I got older that I realized that’s ridiculous. There’s no such thing as ‘girl stuff’ and ‘boy stuff,’ there’s just stuff,” Pearce says. “But I really wish somebody had told me that when I was a kid because it would have made me accept myself in a way that I don’t think I did until I got older. And so with Ellie, I wanted to write about little girl that loved all the things that I loved.”
Pearce is also the author of young adult novels, including “Sisters Red” and “Tsarina.”
“Ellie, Engineer” is out now from Bloomsbury, with the second book in the series coming in October.
Top Stories
