We view the NCDA K-6 career competencies:

1. make the classroom a workplace where students can form positive work values
2. teach/reinforce productive work habits
3. help children understand career applications of subject matter
4. use community resource persons to emphasize both work and occupations
5. emphasize career awareness but not specific occupational choices
6. reduce bias and stereotyping in career awareness ^{note 5}

I am reminded of a book on using children's literature to explore careers with children that I picked up at last year's National Career Development conference. Comprehensive guides to using children's literature to explore careers for each age group can be found in Career Exploration through Children's Literature^{note 6}. The middle school guide lists more than 1000 annotated titles according to the following types of literature: biographies, fiction, and nonfiction.

I advise Odyssa, "If your children's schools don't have the age-appropriate guide, ask them to order it and make it available to parents. You can also ask your local library to make these guides available in their reference sections." I flash back to my own childhood, when my mother would enroll me in the local library's summer reading programs. I would nest in the low-hung branches of a willow tree in our back yard, reading at least four books a week.

I passed down to my children the love of literature that my mother passed on to me. Before we moved to Maui, I would take two-year old Eli to the Cambridge, Massachusetts Public Library to choose picture books and audiotapes. His favorite book, that always elicited a chuckle or two, was Richard Scary's What do People Do All Day? We practiced brushing teeth and performing other daily tasks that the little figures in Scary's book did. Work begins at home. As NCDA points out, work does not have to be paid. It is a "sustained, conscious effort," that produces "societally acceptable benefits for oneself and/or for oneself and others."^{note 7}

Odessa's family is multicultural. Her origins are from Greece and her husband has Spanish roots. I inform her that biographies, as well as fictional books, can inspire children to gain a sense of themselves and the world of work. Gateways to the Sun is a K-4 bilingual series (English and Spanish) that introduces children to the work and contributions of well-known Hispanic writers, artists, and public figures who have helped shape our culture^{note 8}. Children's workbooks in each series are accompanied by readers. The workbooks and accompanying readers give children a sense of identity with their heritage. For children who have immigrated to the United States or moved to a new city, the story of Rita Dolores Alverio is inspirational^{note 9}. At age five, Rita moved to New York City. She took dancing lessons with the uncle of Rita Hayworth. When she grew up, Rosita changed her name to Rita Moreno and won an Oscar for her dancing and singing in the film West Side Story.

Children can gain an appreciation of professions through biographies. They can read about the art and the lives of artists in Just Like Me:  Stories and Self-Portraits by Fourteen Artists. In this book, Children's Book Press "highlights the art and inspirational paths of fourteen out-standing artists who, over the course of twenty years, have shared their art and lives with children."^{note 10} My favorite self-portrait in this book is Mira Reisberg's. This artist was born in Melbourne Austraiia and now lives in San Francisco. In the book, Mira drew a picture of herself surrounded by the favorite things in her life - her cats, her cactuses, and her paints. In the background are portraits of her family and past influences. Her picture can inspire children to draw themselves surrounded by what is important in their lives.

Middle school and older children can become absorbed in the novels of Virginia Hamilton, one of the most prolific young adult authors, who passed away this year. On her website, she wrote:

Virginia was African-American and her husband, Arnold Adoff, a children's author and a poet, is of Jewish origin. In 1973, he wrote Black is Brown is Tan, featuring the first interracial family in children's books. Here is a passage from the book: