The cockpit becomes the brain of the airplane, and you're the one who tells it where to go.
How this is different: This isn't a book where your child pretends to be a pilot. It's the book where your child finally understands what you actually do.
Pilot parents are gone for days at a time, and it's hard for a young child to picture where you actually are. This personalized book follows a flight from preflight to landing — clouds, controls, the crew, the kid back home — so your child has a real story to hold onto while you're away.
What pilots actually do all day
Review weather, the route, and the fuel plan before anyone boards
Walk around the aircraft and check it physically
Run checklists with the other pilot for every phase of flight
Fly, monitor, talk to air traffic control, and land — then do it again
How to explain a pilot's job to a child
If your child is 3 or 4
Pilots fly airplanes full of people to faraway places. They check everything before takeoff, steer the plane in the sky, and land it gently so everyone can go see who they came to see.
If your child is 5 to 7
A pilot plans the route, checks the airplane and the weather, and flies with a co-pilot using checklists for every step. Air traffic controllers on the ground tell them where it's safe to go.
The tools kids find interesting
Checklists
Flight plan and weather charts
Headset
The flight deck controls
Roller bag
What a child would notice at a pilot's work
Checklists for absolutely everything
A parent packing for several days at a time
Sunrise from above the clouds
What kids learn from a WorkTale Book Company book about pilots
What it actually looks like to fly an airplane
Why mom or dad sleeps in hotels far away
How airports work (from the pilot's side)
That coming home is always part of the trip
Frequently asked questions
I fly cargo / regional / private / military — same book?
We adapt to the type of flying you do. A C-17 pilot's book will look different from a 737 captain's, which looks different from a corporate Gulfstream pilot's.
Can I include my aircraft type?
Yes. The aircraft type, your seat (captain or FO), and your typical routes can all be woven in.
I'm a flight attendant — do you have that profession?
Yes — we have a flight-attendant variant. See 'flight attendants' in our profession list.
Every WorkTale book closes with two pages no name-swap personalized book has. First, a "So, what does Mommy, Daddy, or your grown-up do?" page that distills the parent's entire job into one plain-spoken line a child can recite from memory, with no jargon and no job description. Then an "About the Author" page with the parent's real photograph, name, job title, and a short biography blurb, so the illustrated hero is revealed as the real person the child knows. Why the parent is the hero.