Construction-themed children’s books have been hitting the scene in recent years, aiming to introduce young people to the wonders of the industry. The National Association of Women in Construction Philadelphia Foundation took that trend one step further. With an interactive spin on a traditional children’s book, “In the Construction Zone: An Activity Book” not only showcases the fun and fundamentals of a career in construction, but it lets kids know that there is a place for anyone and everyone—from any background, with any skin color or hair type, of any gender—in construction.
Initially released in 2023 at the Foundation’s Block Kids Building Competition, the construction-themed activity book was designed to inspire creativity, problem solving and interest in the building trades among children.
Mary Gaffney, board president of the NAWIC Philadelphia Foundation, says, “We do a number of different activities [during Block Kids] so that the kids and their families get to see what [construction] is all about. We put together a bag of construction-related goodies for the kids so that they can bring them home, and we were having a hard time finding construction-related activities, like a coloring book or an activity book. So, we thought, wouldn’t it be neat if we could build our own activity book?”
NAWIC then tapped Byron Lee, graduate program coordinator for the mechanical engineering and applied mechanics department at the University of Pennsylvania, to author the book. Lee knew Gaffney from NAWIC events at which he had previously volunteered, but he was still slightly surprised when one day she called him with the vision for this project. His initial reaction? Dive right in. “We wanted to do something that would not only introduce children to construction and the building trades, but also keep them engaged. We wanted to incorporate educational elements that enticed 11-year-olds but that were also simple enough for 6-year-olds to understand.”
The book includes activities like mazes, word searches, math puzzles and more, but the real crux is its character depictions. That is where the work of illustrator Michelle Baron comes in. With a marketing strategy, a target audience and only a few months to pull together the entire 18-page activity book, Baron, Gaffney and Lee got to work, starting with discussing what types of trades to highlight, what tools they require and what someone in that trade might look like. Spoiler: they can look like anyone.
“What would a carpenter do? A plumber? Electrician? Construction manager?” says Gaffney. “Whatever we came up with, we thought it was really important that the children reading it could see a figure,” and those figures take many forms—from men to women, black to white, straight blonde hair to curly brown hair. Baron designed the opening character, Kai, with curly hair, and when Lee showed that design to a friend, he says, “Her daughter’s first reaction was, ‘She has curly hair like me.’ And she grabbed the book and wanted to work through it.”
While images reflecting so many depictions of the different people who do and can work in construction fill the pages along the way, the book’s impeccable illustrations culminate on the last page when the reader becomes the artist.
“The thing I really love is the final page, which is a picture of a person in a construction hard hat but without a face,” says Lee. “We ask the children to draw their own face in as the future face of construction. That’s the story. After learning a lot about the trades, playing some fun games, at the end, the readers can imagine themselves in one of these roles.”
The response from readers—young children to tweens to their parents—on the first version of the book was unanimously positive. In fact, the book—debuting as a giveaway at that 2023 Block Kids competition—was in such high demand that Gaffney, Lee and Baron set to reimagining it in an expanded second edition for 2024.
“We were getting reports back from our friends that their children would sit with it for over an hour, which is a long time for a child to be engaged by themselves with a book,” says Lee.
The second edition, self-published and available for purchase on Amazon, launched on Nov. 6, 2024, and features 39 pages of all the original beloved illustrations, plus puzzles, mazes, coloring activities and more. Even after writing it and rewriting it and looking at it so closely for so long, Gaffney and Lee can still quickly pick out their favorite parts of the book.
Gaffney’s favorite pages are, “the ones with the hidden pictures. I love hidden pictures. So, I’m glad that we included them in both versions of the magazine. The kids can look for the hidden tools throughout the spread, so that’s fun. ”She also likes the pages describing what each type of construction worker does and what tools they need to get their jobs done.”
Lee’s favorite aspect of the activity book is also something the kids get to search for. “At the end,” he says, “there’s a diagram showing kids all the paths they could take to the trades. They could go to trade school, do an apprenticeship, go to university or college, pursue continuing education. All these things can lead to careers in construction. It’s my favorite spread because we want people to see that there are a lot of different opportunities.”
With version two receiving twice as much love, Baron, Gaffney and Lee are eager to see where 2025 takes the story book and where the story book takes future readers. While there are not yet plans for a third edition or another storyline, Gaffney and Lee do still have their hopes. “I just hope people have fun with it,” says Lee. “I also hope, as much fun as it is for children, that it opens up a different way of thinking about this industry for adults.”
SEE ALSO: BRINGING CONSTRUCTION CONCEPTS TO LIFE FOR KIDS
