Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that there's not much to be concerned about here beyond a snippet of cartoon violence.
Families who read this book could discuss the economics of the story. Could this really happen? How does he make so much money so quickly? What do those chapter titles mean? How does the Stock Market really work?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
The unnamed boy, who narrates his story, is mostly a Forrest Gump type; a nice kid to whom ridiculous things just seem to happen. His grandmother is prone to non-sequiturs that always turn out to make sense after all. Perhaps the best character is the prizefighter, Joey Powdermilk, a dim but mostly sweet lummox who may remind Simpsons fans of Drederick Tatum.
It's hard to imagine a more perfect summer reading book -- it's a short, funny, delightfully absurd confection that secretly conveys some ideas worth thinking about. It might even inspire your kid to go out and try to earn some money. Veteran author Paulsen gets right to the point, with no frills or unnecessary description, and readers will be grinning from the beginning to the all-too-soon end.
From The Book
Turns out the man who owned the lawn service that had done all the yards in our neighborhood had run off with the wife of one of his customers and all the husbands were worried about hiring a new company after what had happened. A kid like me mowing their lawns wouldn't be much of a threat, I suppose. Plus, I was cheap.
Later I would learn that I had tapped into something called an expanding market economy.
All I knew was that it felt good to have all that money in my pockets.
Plot Summary:
A boy (not named) gets an old, used, riding lawnmower for his birthday from his eccentric grandmother. His next-door neighbor asks him to mow his lawn. He needs money to buy an inner tube for his bike, so he agrees. Soon he gets more customers. Soon he has more than he can handle.
One of his customers, an aging hippie day trader named Arnold, gives the boy advice on running his business, and invests his money for him. Soon the boy has more than a dozen employees, a wad of money, an interest in a prize fighter, and a problem with a protection racket. And all he wanted was an inner tube.
Related Books:
More Paulsen Humor:
Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day
The Amazing Life of Birds: The Twenty-Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech
More Kids and Money:
The Shoeshine Girl by Clyde Robert Bulla
The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald
Make Four Million Dollars by Next Thursday by Stephen Manes
Fat Fanny, Beanpole Bertha, and the Boys by Barbara Ann Porte
The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill
Double Fudge by Judy Blume
Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Lunch Money by Andrew Clements
Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Related Web Sites:
Author's Site
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