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When you were little, what did you want to be?

I wanted to be a veterinarian until I discovered I didn't like blood, or death, or, really, animals. What I did like was All Creatures Great and Small.

Sometimes relying on fiction or memoir for making career choices isn't the best idea. I suspect we'd all be witches, or vampires, or veterinarians if that were the case. Fortunately, Diane Heiman and Liz Suneby have come to the rescue with See What You Can Be, a career book for girls ages nine to twelve.

See What You Can Be begins with a simple quiz designed to discover "Which Careers Click with Your Personality?" (I'm a Purple, "a shaker-upper.") Then the book is divided into several sections organized by interest: animals; food & cooking; math & puzzles; sports & fitness; art & music; computers; reading & writing; and science & nature. So, you choose your interest area, look for your color, and determine good career fits for you.

Career choices range from the practical (lawyer, journalist) to the imaginative (crossword puzzle constructor, songwriter) and are described in lively, age-appropriate prose. The authors have also included related activities ("Your turn: Create a crossword puzzle") and profiles of women working in related fields. See What You Can Be is an excellent girl-power choice for readers ages 9-12.

A couple years ago the book Nim's Island by Wendy Orr was on the Summer Reading List for all five of the New York boroughs. As a result (and I'm sure some of you librarians out there will know what I'm talking about) my particular library branch has oodles of caboodles of paperback copies of the book just hanging about. Normally when this happens we delete the excess copies from the system and sell or give them away. The problem with doing this with Nim's Island, though, is that the book is remarkably thin. A quick enjoyable read, but a slim one just the same. Why discard a title when ten copies are the same thickness as a single edition of Eragon?

Now, at long last, I've a second reason to keep these books in the system. Adorable Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine fame will be starring in a filmed adaptation of the book alongside, wait for it.... Jodie Foster.

I don't know how Hollywood goes about choosing books for future movies, but this actually strikes me as a fairly good idea. Plus Abigail Breslin has officially co-opted the American Sweetheart crown from Dakota Fanning. Guess all it took were coke bottle glasses and a wildly inappropriate striptease. What's more, she'll also be starring as Kit in an upcoming American Girl adaptation to boot. Wouldn't Molly have been more appropriate though? I mean... what with the glasses and all?