Hello, friends! Our books today are This Little Wonder: A No-Limits Primer and This Little Engineer: A Think-and-Do Primer by Joan Holub and Daniel Roode, the latest in the pair’s board book series on inspiring figures.

In each book, readers are introduced to ten notable names of the past and present with a short rhyme on a two-sentence blurb. In This Little Wonder, the subjects are luminaries of science, art, athletics, etc. who have physical or developmental disabilities, such as Helen Keller, Temple Grandin, and Claudia Gordon. In This Little Engineer, the focus is engineers, most of them women of color, and the diverse impacts that their work can have on the world. Both feature even more mini-bios of diverse figures on the last page to inspire aspiration and imagination.

Wonderful. We’ve been a big fan of this series for a while now, and these titles are welcome additions, especially for a young, female, special-needs reader with an interest in science. I was particularly happy to see such a great blend of familiar names with more obscure ones; I enjoyed learning about people like Marian Croak, Sangeeta Bhatia, and Chris Downey alongside their better-known counterparts. The colorful artwork is simple, yet does a good job of illustrating each figure’s unique background in a visually-engaging way. My only complaint is the use of the title “Wonder” to describe those with disabilities, which carries an unfortunately associative tone of spectatorship and superiority, even if that is not the intention. But other than that, both books are quick and enjoyable reads that spotlight encouraging true stories, and we recommend them. Baby Bookworm approved!

(Note: Copies of these books were provided to The Baby Bookworm by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)