The economic crisis in late September has affected everyone. Kids may not understand everything that is going on, but they are aware that there is a problem. This month’s selection of books focuses on Money and Business. I hope, with the books below, that students can learn more about economics and understand some of the factors that led to the economic crisis in late September
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You Can’t Buy a Dinosaur with A Dime
Written by Harriet Ziefert
Illustrated by Amanda HaleyA little boy buys a toy dinosaur with his money. When he does, he wishes he had more money to buy another dinosaur. After he earned some money for cleaning the yard, and his mother gave him his allowance, the little boy goes back to the toy store to buy the second toy dinosaur.
This is a brief story that takes the reader through the steps of counting out coined money (dollar bills were not mentioned, just coins). This is a great book for young students to work on their understanding of coined money and what it means to buy something with money. There are two sections in the back to for the older students. One is on activities, and the other is on money trivia.
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Lawn Boy
Written by Gary Paulsen
What started out as a one-person lawn mowing business grew into 15 person business with a stock portfolio, and a sponsorship in a local wrestler. Along the way the “lawn boy” (not named in the story) learns about business, and making money.
This is a clever book that takes the reader through the basics of business and the stock market. The chapter headings are also clever and highlight some of the issues that come up when starting or running a business. For example, the chapter heading “Labor Acquisition and Its Effect on Capital Growth” is about how “lawn boy” hired more workers to meet the demand of his lawn mowing service, which resulted in increased profit. It was ingenious to use the text within the chapter to help the reader understand the formal economics terms. This would be a great book to read aloud to students while learning about economics and business.
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Beyond the Lemonade Stand
Written by Bill Rancic
Beyond the Lemonade Stand is an interesting book about how Bill Rancic used small opportunities when he was young to make money. The book is divided into five parts. The first part of the book Rancic focuses on his life experiences and he adds vignettes from 9-12 year old students (Rancic interviewed students at a Chicago suburb elementary school). For example, Rancic made use of opportunities such as a heavy snowfall to make some money. Rancic also learned the importance of being prepared at a job and to complete tasks today instead of tomorrow when he forgot to bring bags to hold the leaves he was raking. Instead of returning right away to complete his task, Rancic returned the next day to find that the leaves had scattered and Rancic had to re-rake the leaves.
The second part of the book is the gem of the book. The stories are great, but the second part is new and different. In the second part of the book, Rancic goes through 20 kid friendly business plans. The format of these plans is a great tool for students to organize their business ideas and to make sure they know what is involved in starting their business and to make it successful. Often times it’s not a bad idea that ruins a business, but a poorly organized business plan.
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“Cool Stuff” They Should Teach In School
Written by Kent Healy and Kyle Healy
This book is part motivational and part business plan. “Cool Stuff” was written by 2 teenagers who started their own skim/skate/surf board business. The book starts out with the question “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” From there the book moves into money management and ends with communication skills.
A weakness of the book is that it’s more of a glance at the many options out there for money management. But perhaps that is not such a bad thing since the authors were teenagers when they wrote the book, and the many options go in and out of popularity.
The lack of depth also allows the authors to focus on the breadth of topics. For example, in the money management chapters, there is a section on the different types of bank account, the parts of a check, the need to balance your checkbook, and how to select the best credit card for your needs. There are also lots of common sense tips interspersed in the book. For example, don’t give out your PIN number, if you can’t pay the entire balance of your credit card, then you are overspending. The strength of the book lies in its easy access. I really got the feeling that this was written by people who had been there and done that. The book’s tone of voice is very conversational, and I can see a teacher using a chapter from the book to reach students who may have difficulties with a textbook. I can see the book being used on a lesson about credit cards, or about investing in retirement early, rather than later. This is a great book for students who have dreams of a bigger and brighter future, but might not have the tools to obtain their dreams.
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