A first book on finances for children. As an adult, there is nothing more mind-numbingly boring than talking about budgets, finance and money. Unfortunately, it is a critical part of being a grownup and is something many adults struggle with. Teaching children about handling money when they are young can make them more financially literate and set them up for financial success when they get out on their own in the world and are responsible for making their own decisions about their money.

Olivia and her brother Johnny are at a family gathering. They are playing with their cousins, brother and sister Ethan and Tina, when they hear one of their aunts talk about how excited she is to retire. The question comes up about why adults have jobs, especially ones they don't like. The conversation turns to how someone makes money to start their own business. Grandpa gives them each $20 and the children begin to explore all the ways they can spend it. Olivia wants to use it to buy supplies to start a lemonade stand, Johnny thinks about donating it to help those in need. Tina plans on saving it so she can eventually buy a computer she wants. Little Ethan, who is the youngest, plans on spending it. The book goes on to discuss business plans, expenses, charity, savings accounts, stocks and the pure joy of just going out and buying something you want right away.

The book is mostly an introduction to these concepts and terms and doesn't go very in-depth which makes it good for younger children who are learning this for the first time. It really simplifies complex topics in an easy to understand format. It is very educational, but it could lack enough of the entertaining factor to really grip kids and keep them engaged. Kids with short attention spans may have a harder time with this. There may be some kids who don't care and find it boring, so they may tune out quickly leaving it up to the adult reader to find ways to keep their focus on the book.

The book is illustrated in cute cartoon-style pictures. This would be a great book to add to a classroom's math book section and for teachers to read when they start talking about money.

Teaching children about money is so important, so I was excited to read this book! While the book covers many important topics, it does so at a very surface level and doesn't actually end up teaching anything. It goes from saving money, to creating a business, donating to charity, and then stocks. I would have preferred the author focused on one topic and dove deeper to really explore the benefits of saving money, for example.

There are very good concepts taught in this book: Saving, sharing and investing and why it is important to see what the value money has . Definitely a good way to teach children financial literacy.

I thought this would be a great read for my 6 yo, as she is starting to understand the concept of money. The book starts strong with the kids questioning why adults hate working, as we always stress to our kids to find something they love and run with it. After that, once the kids start deciding what they want to do with their money, my daughter’s eyes glazed over and she checked out. When I asked why, she huffed that there were just sooooo many words. She just lost interest.

She’s always told at school or events of the “have-to’s” which takes all the fun away from what she’s about to do. Reading how excited the girl was for the lemonade stand but you need this and need that, she was then done.

It’s a great concept to start those ideas with your kids but it didn’t land in my house.

This book brought on a bunch of conversations- what does $20 mean to you? Should you donate it, treat a friend, buy a toy? This really helped to teach the value of money and the idea that money doesn't need to be spent just because you have it.

I love children's books that illustrate aspects of adult life in a simple and easy way. This book talks about the amount of money the children received from their grandfather and how they decided to do with this money. The book is nice and the graphics are beautiful.
Thank you netgalley.

Four kids are given that magical grandparent gift of a few dollars "just because" and each thinks through what they'd like to do with the money--start a business, give it away, save it, or spend it. The investing, giving, and saving options were discussed in an ambitious amount of detail, which is a great way to introduce these ideas to elementary kids (I was concerned at the bit that said stocks paid interest--it would be more appropriate to either frame that in the context of bonds or discuss dividends/capital gains).

The spending option was not given much attention, which I think could have been a missed opportunity. It's not inappropriate for a kid to want to spend "mad money" and it could have been good to discuss how to spend mindfully. Also, the option of splitting up the money between two or more options was not mentioned either.

Still, this is a good introduction to complex concepts and I think kids will enjoy "playing along" and deciding what they would do with a windfall. This would be a good addition to elementary classroom and school libraries.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

Four children receive $20 from their grandparents and discuss what they each plan to do with the money--save, invest, donate, and spend. It is a cute story with characters that show a range of qualities, from compassion as to ambition. The storyline doesn't appear to favor one method over the other which was nice; it simply shared how each child plans to do with their money. However some of the terms in the book like expenses and interest are little vague for young children. The font is a bit think and the words are too close together; I hope this is fixed before the published version comes out.