Steve McKeown realized that there wasn’t much representation for skilled trades in children’s books, and he is changing that.<\/p>\n
THUNDER BAY \u2014 Steve McKeown is an electrician by trade.<\/p>\n
He began a series of books that aim to inspire children to go for the skilled trades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe animal trades book series started with Lion the Electrician. It started as a personal goal. It was something that I wanted to write to explain and express to my kids what I did for work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That process led him to realize that there are not a lot of children\u2019s books out there that capture or encourage kids to pursue the trades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat led me to a question: why don’t we talk about the skilled trades the same way we talk about other professions like being an astronaut or being a fireman, or being a police officer?\u201d<\/p>\n
McKeown said that Thunder Bay is a fairly trade-heavy city, and for parents in trades who can read a book with their career in it to their child will be great.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feedback from anyone related to the trades or who has experience with that or a family connection to that has always been positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re happy that they can finally showcase to their kids the same way I could, what they do for work. I find that the real feedback that I get from the community comes from families that don’t have any sort of trade relation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I hear from the family of a child who are maybe an accountant or a teacher or a lawyer or whatever they happen to do for work that has no direct connection to the trades, that their child is now watching YouTube videos that have a STEM connection or have a trades related connection to it or they’re asking questions about why the lights flickering in the house or how a light switch works, those are the connections that I really like to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
It sparks curiosity in children and can lead them down a path of a rewarding career at the end, McKeown said.<\/p>\n
The book includes activity pages where children can interact and learn more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe skilled trades are facing a significant work shortage, and I think we all see that. Introducing the trades to children at a younger age should be part of a long-term solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy providing inclusive and diverse content when it comes to the characters themselves, children are able to open their eyes and see that there are other possibilities. Essentially, I think that you’re planting the seeds of change, and you’re showing them that (they) can do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lion the Electrician is available and can be purchased at Indigo and Entershine Bookshop in Thunder Bay. The French version of Lion the Electrician is coming out in August.<\/p>\n
Bear the Carpenter, the next book in the series, based upon a female character, is going to be coming out this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a book for everyone. It’s for early readers, and it’s easy to digest content with excellent illustrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody should be able to do these types of jobs, not just specific types of people,\u201d McKeown said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve McKeown realized that there wasn’t much representation for skilled trades in children’s books, and he is changing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[457,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-58082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}