Sanitation Worker

Children's Literature

This easy-to-read introduction to the work of sanitation workers is, according to the introductory "Note to Educators and Parents," designed to be read in instructional reading groups. Each two-page spread consists of a sentence or two outlining part of a sanitation worker's job: "Sanitation workers help keep a community clean. They pick up garbage and recyclables." On the facing pages, color photographs show sanitation workers going about their jobs. The text emphasize the difficulties of the job—lifting heavy trash, working in bad weather—and highlights the equipment sanitation workers use, from gloves to garbage trucks. In addition to a back-of-the-book glossary, some boldfaced words are defined by using the tagged photographs as a sort of in-text picture glossary. Accompanying materials also include a "For Further Reading" list of a Web site and fiction and nonfiction books, as well as an index, which, puzzlingly enough, has separate entries for "garbage" and "trash." Part of the "People in My Community" series. 2003, Weekly Reader, Ages 4 to 8.
— Norah Piehl