Rhymed couplets convey the story of a girl who likes to build things but is shy about it. Neither the poetry nor Rosie’s projects always work well.

Rosie picks up trash and oddments where she finds them, stashing them in her attic room to work on at night. Once, she made a hat for her favorite zookeeper uncle to keep pythons away, and he laughed so hard that she never made anything publicly again. But when her great-great-aunt Rose comes to visit and reminds Rosie of her own past building airplanes, she expresses her regret that she still has not had the chance to fly. Great-great-aunt Rose is visibly modeled on Rosie the Riveter, the iconic, red-bandanna–wearing poster woman from World War II. Rosie decides to build a flying machine and does so (it’s a heli-o-cheese-copter), but it fails. She’s just about to swear off making stuff forever when Aunt Rose congratulates her on her failure; now she can go on to try again. Rosie wears her hair swooped over one eye (just like great-great-aunt Rose), and other figures have exaggerated hairdos, tiny feet and elongated or greatly rounded bodies. The detritus of Rosie’s collections is fascinating, from broken dolls and stuffed animals to nails, tools, pencils, old lamps and possibly an erector set. And cheddar-cheese spray.

Earnest and silly by turns, it doesn’t quite capture the attention or the imagination, although surely its heart is in the right place. (historical note) (Picture book. 5-7)

-Kirkus Review

Excellent book encouraging young girls to dream and never give up! ( )

I have no idea why my library shelves this in J Fiction... it's a straight-up picture book complete with rhyming text and, in my opinion, should be classified as an E (easy a.k.a. picture book). ( )

What a great story to read to children to help them understand that failure leads to success! Rosie's inventions may not seem like much, but how can we become successful without trying. ( )

This book illustrates that girls can become engineers as well. It presents Rosie's passion for engineering and dreaming up new inventions via poetic literature. Rosie finds ways to solve problems and uses whatever she has available along with her imagination to create new inventions. This book introduces children to poetry, breaks down stereotypes, and helps facilitate children's imaginations. ( )

Girls: Never give up! ( )

Girls: Never give up! ( )

This is a great book to get kids started thinking about engineering, especially since it highlights one of the most daunting aspects; making mistakes. Most kids are taught that mistakes are something to be feared and avoided at all costs, when in reality, we can learn a lot from our mistakes! The great machines we use today, including this very laptop I'm working on now, weren't made based off of just the first prototype. It wasn't even based on the second, or third prototypes. In fact, creations that engineers make are constantly changing and adapting! Why do you think there's a new iPhone every year? Every year engineers and designers are trying to improve on their design (and sometimes, let's be honest, Apple just wants to make a bit more money). This read aloud would best be used when first beginning the engineering process, but I feel like pages could be copied and used again and again to remind students that mistakes are progress. ( )

This book is all about persevering and learning to work through failures. Rosie tells the tale of enjoying engineering all sorts of fantastical things but starts to hide her tinkering when an uncle laughs at her invention. When Great Aunt Rose comes for a visit she inspires Rosie to create a flying machine and helps her figure out that "The only true failure can come if you quit".

Great rhyming book for read aloud--with a message that the first step to success might be failure!

This book is about a girl who dreams to become an engineer. She has to overcome failure though her journey. This book is great for learning about failure and how it leads to success. ( )

Rosie is quiet druing the days, but at night she is an inventor of many little gadgets while she dreams of becoming a great engineer. Her great-great-aunt, Rosie the Riveter, comes for a visist and mentions an unfinished goal of hers, to fly. Rosie begins working on a contraption to make her aunt's dream come true. When her contraption doesn't work she thinks it is a failure, but he aunt assures her that it is a success and will only be a failure if she gives up. In the classroom I would use this book to teach students the value of persisting. It could aso be incorporated into a STEM lesson. ( )

This is a sweet little book about the power of persistence and pursuing your passions, even in the face of failure. As a fiction book, this book creates loveable, relatable characters. The plot is easy to follow, but packed with meaningful lessons. The story is clearly introduced with a conflict and resolution after the rising action. The illustrations are so fun and add a lot of value to the text. ( )

STEM is a major concept in this book, not only is the main character a female, but it is a female engineer. It places a girl in a spot that is normally seen as a males job, it is encouraging for young girls to see themselves in a position that isn't normally tailored to them.

This book can help teach children about success and failure. It lets children know that it is okay to fail and that failure isn't necessarily bad. It promotes creativity among students and encourages them to invent and engineer their own inventions. ( )

This book follows a young engineer named Rosie. She builds many different objects day and night for many of her friends and family. This is up until someone laughs at her creations which makes her lose all confidence, this is until her great-great Aunt Rose tells her that her failure was still a success for a short amount of time. This is an amazing story to show children that failures can only lead to successes and to show adults how much one interaction and impact a child. ( )

This is such an inspirational picture book! This book is about Rosie, who wants to become an engineer. She builds many inventions, but many of them do not succeed. Rosie does not let failure stop her from doing what she loves. This book is intended for an audience who should keep reaching for their goals. ( )

I absolutely loved Rosie Revere, Engineer! It definitely garnered 5 stars from me. This book was the perfect mix of SEL (trying again and encouraging each other) and science. I loved how it showed Rosie getting ordinary items like trash and spray cheese for her inventions. I also loved how it touched on people laughing at her inventions so she decided to hide them until her great great great aunt needed to fly. I love how even though her aunt laughed at her invention she encouraged her to try again and again until she got it. I also loved how at the end her teacher let all the students have engineering time. I could see myself using this in the classroom during engineering time to show that it's perfectly okay for something not to go great the first time and as long as we keep trying we are doing great. (Also I obviously love this book based on how many times I have written love in this review). ( )

This is the perfect book to have as a read aloud for the whole class. I would use this as a read aloud for my students, when we are in a STEM unit or even just for fun. I feel that this book creates encouragement towards female students. This can even be used in a history unit on iconic figures. The pictures are very creative and I think they catch the attention of the students.The author has also written multiple books that are connected to STEM. This book is very encouraging and I feel that it will help both sides of students. That not only can boys be creative but it allows them to see that girls can also be engineers and creative as well. One of the most important things that I see that this books brings out is that it shows the meaning of being an engineer. ( )

Excellent. ( )

Beaty, A. (2013). Rosie Revere, Engineer. New York: Abrams.
This book is most appropriate for preschoolers. This book is about a young girl in second grade who is constantly dreaming about inventions she can make. When she was younger she made a snake hat for her uncle, but was laughed at and never made another invention again. That is, until her great-great Aunt Rose comes into town and tells her that she’s always wanted to fly. Rosie ends up making her aunt a contraption that flies for a few minutes and then falls to the ground, but Rosie learns to keep trying and chasing her dreams.

Rosie was a little girl that dreamed of being an engineer. She collected scraps and used them to create gadgets in her attic at night. Rosie wanted to help her aunt fulfill her dream of flying, so she invented a cheese copter. When she was done her aunt laughed and Rosie wanted to give up. Her aunt hugged her and stated that "The only true failure will come if you quit."
I love how creative and thoughtful Rosie was. She wanted to use what she knew as an engineer to help her aunt fly. She failed the first time and almost gave up but we all need to create a rough draft before creating a masterpiece. This would be a great book to help kids who often give up when they fail at a task. ( )

Rosie loves to invent things. However, after one of her inventions is laughed at, she decides to hide her ideas from everyone. When her great aunt wants to fly, Rosie decides to come up with a way to make it happen. Her invention crashes and her great aunt laughs. Rosie feels down until her aunt tells her that her failure was an amazing success. Before it crashed, it flew! Onto try number two!
This is a great addition to any classroom library, but especially for a math or science classroom. It shows the importance of perseverance. It teaches children that in order to have a successful idea, we often first must fail. Still, we should not give up and we should learn from each failure. ( )

This a another cute poem about a little girl named Rosie and she wanted to be a great engineer. She was scared of showing of her work, because she was laughed at so she hid all of her work under her bed for no one to see. Till her great aunt came and helped her that failure is about of growing up and learning to try again. I gave this book 5 star because it is a great growth mindset book. ( )

Young Rosie Revere is so eager to invent and create amazing contraptions. But she doesn't exactly have a role model, or a cheerleader, for her engineering dreams, so when her first few contraptions fail, Rosie Revere becomes very discouraged. Thanks to Rosie Revere's great-great-aunt Rose, Rosie Revere finds someone who believes in her and teaches her that failure is all part of the process.

I love that this book presents a child with a dream in a very realistic way - Rosie Revere does not want to be an engineer when she grows up! She wants to be an engineer now! Though imagination and creativity might not be lacking in any child, finding the determination and motivation to pursue one's dreams as a child is harder. I love how famous pilots were nodded to in the illustrations, like Bessie Coleman and Amelia Earhart. I would have loved to see more scenes of Rosie actually building her contraptions, rather than them just appearing. I listened and watched this book be read aloud in a Space Station read-aloud video done by astronaut Kate Rubins. It was very inspiring to see a woman astronaut read this book! ( )

Really, really awesome. I want more like this. [return][return]A little kid dreams of being an engineer, but is discouraged when her creations don't go as planned. When she tries again, only to be discouraged again by a "failure", her great aunt congratulates her on a "perfect first try": Yes, it failed -- but before that, it flew![return][return]So it does a great job of targeting that problem that little kids often face -- perfectionism and not understanding the process of tinkering. [return][return]And, it has a girl, and a daring older woman, and a lot of information about women engineers and women in flight. [return][return]This book should be in every elementary school library and every public library children's section. ( )