Richard Scarry’s “What Do People Do All Day?”

Lauren Fisher
Dr. Adam Johns
ENGCMP 0200 – Seminar in Composition
August 26, 2008

Working Hard and Teamwork

Since childhood, parents have tried to instill the values of community and teamwork on their children. Children are taught how to play nice with each other beginning in preschool, and later on are encouraged to do team building exercises. In Richard Scarry’s “What Do People Do All Day?” children can see how workers in several different occupations must work together for a common goal. At a first glance, this book might just seem to be a beautifully illustrated children’s book. Yet upon further investigation, the reader will see that the author uses these pictures and short text to get across several messages about human nature.

Scarry introduces the idea of a strong work ethic and carries this theme throughout his book. The book illustrates the concept of goods being purchased or traded as a result of people’s hard work and shows that without it, nothing would ever get done. Work also provides for the needs and wants of society and allows people to be able to pay for them. For example in the story “The story of seeds and how they grow,” Scarry shows the complete process of Farmer Alfalfa growing his corn. Scarry writes, “Grocer Cat gave money to Alfalfa for the corn. With the money he earned growing corn, Alfalfa bought a shiny new truck” (38). In this case, Alfalfa was able to work hard to grow and sell his corn and with the profit, was able to replace his truck which had broken down. Children reading this story will see that they too will be able to reap the benefits of their hard work one day. A good work ethic will help them in school as well as later on in life once they have jobs.

Another important theme in “What Do People Do All Day?” is teamwork and working together for a common goal. “Wood and how we use it” is a perfect example of many different workers carrying out their specific job, yet working as a whole to finish the task. In this one process, children are able to see just how many different people in various occupations it takes to make a single sheet of paper. Scarry show how the jobs of lumberjacks, forest rangers, foresters, and loggers all are important and an integral part in the overall process. Furthermore, Scarry shows that boat builders, furniture makers, and carpenters should all be thankful to the aforementioned jobs because they depend on them to get the much needed wood. Through the pictures and diagrams of a forest, lumberyard, and sawmill, children are able to easily see that if one worker doesn’t do his part, then the whole process will fall apart and the end goal will not be achieved. For instance, “loggers ride the logs down the river. They try to keep the logs from getting jammed. Oh dear! The logs are jammed! Unscramble that log jam, loggers!” (Scarry 41). Although the passage might sound humorous and use easy language, the message is clear: if the loggers are unable to unscramble the log jam, then many other workers will not be able to finish their jobs and/or get their payoff in the end. Thus, the ideas of teamwork and cooperation are shown to young children to get them thinking about these things at an early age.

Children reading this book will also be able to understand complex processes through Richard Scarry’s simple sentence structure and word choice. In the short story “Mailing a letter,” Besty Bear goes through the process of mailing a birthday card to Grandma and learns all about the postal system. Although typically the postman will not stick the letter under his hat and forget to deliver it, the descriptions of buying stamps, putting an ink postmark on it, and sorting the mail to see which part of town it goes to are all part of the complex process of where a letter goes once dropped into the letter slot. Other complex procedures described in this book include building a house, building a new road, and where bread comes from. Children reading this book are able to see how technology can play a role in these processes, like a flour mill is used to turn seeds into flour and how it takes many construction trucks to make a roadbed straight and smooth. Even older readers will probably discover something they never knew before while reading this book because there is a lot of information given in the labeled drawings and short stories. A young reader would probably not understand what a keystone is or a water drainage ditch. However, the next time they drive past road construction, they might be able to point out a dump truck or a bulldozer. Through his illustrations, Scarry is teaching children that workers and their equipment are everywhere in nature, both above and below the surface.

In Richard Scarry’s children’s book “What Do People Do All Day,?” he is able to take illustrations of talking animal characters and show his viewpoints on today’s society and the nature of humans. Readers learn that everyone is a worker. No matter how small or insignificant a person’s job might seem, it is still important to the overall picture. Scarry shows the idea of community in Busytown, of teamwork, and of cooperation. Although the short stories could stand alone, they are also interwoven to tell one story with these basic ideas featured in every story. Children are able to find out about several different types of occupations and why it is so important to be a hard worker, especially when others are depending on that person. Richard Scarry’s book contains more than just what meets the eye and tells the story of many different workers all trying to get their job at hand done.