Emergency Medical Technicians

Children's Literature

This title is one of a series designed to help children understand the critical roles of various individuals in their community. The book explains how the Emergency Medical Technician's (EMT's) dedication and training saves peoples lives every day. Working with fire departments, police departments and hospitals, EMT's provide an invaluable service, often on a voluntary basis, and they undergo extensive training for their work. While the concept of educating children about community resource helpers is good, the format of this book is somewhat flat and uninteresting and the photographs seem staged. Since children, particularly age six and under, are very visually focused, the lack of creative layout and the unexceptional writing may not hold their attention. The positives include an interesting experiment at the back of the book as well as several helpful references and web sites that are worth checking out. Part of the "Community Helpers" series. 2001, Capstone Press, $17.26. Ages 4 to 8. Reviewer: Emily Cook

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3-Clearly and concisely written in simple sentences, these titles introduce children to the work of people they may encounter in their daily lives. New, less fluent readers will be able to focus on content without struggling to read the texts. Average-quality, full-color photographs show ethnically diverse community helpers performing their duties. In Child Care Workers, the pictures are less obviously posed than those in Emergency Medical Technicians. Highlighted words in the text are defined at the bottom of the page. These are solid introductions to their topics that could be useful as read-alouds for preschoolers who prefer nonfiction or in study units. They are more general than titles in the "Kids' Career Library" series (Rosen), which fictionalize a typical day in the life of the workers.-Rita Hunt Smith, Hershey Public Library, PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.