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Taro Miura is a multiple-award-winning illustrator and graphic designer. He lives in Japan.

Who do you think of when you see a hammer and a saw? A carpenter! What about a shovel and a watering can?

In Taro Miura's deceptively simple book children will discover more than sixty different tools, both familiar and new. Even the youngest readers will find the striking images engaging, and older children will be fascinated by the chance to guess which profession uses each set of tools before they turn the page. A wonderful tour of a variety of jobs and the tools they use to fix, build, and create.

Children's Literature

Each occupation uses its own special tools. For each of ten different jobs, Miura presents a collection of the particular tools used, clearly delineated and labeled, on a double-page spread. On the following spread we see the worker using the tools with the label: Carpenter, Tailor, Mechanic, Doctor, Electrician, Gardener, Chef, Watchmaker, Barber, and Painter. Both men and women perform the jobs. Some of the tools are commonly used, while others will enable even adults to add some unusual ones to their vocabulary. There is no "story," but a mischievous youngster does end the book by putting his black handprints on the painter's newly painted wall before scampering away. Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop are used to produce the pictures, clear-edged as if made from stencils or cut from paper. Those of the tools are set on backgrounds of different colors and subtle textures that seem aesthetically connected to the tools. The alternating scenes of people at work are devoid of unnecessary details, even of the faces. The white backgrounds there tend to strip all emotion from the scenes. Very heavy paper pages add a mechanical feel to the book.