Cinders McLeod

With five younger siblings at home, Honey wants a place of her own to have some peace and quiet. She decides to purchase a playhouse by carefully managing the money she earns, setting aside savings every week.

This is a great book for introducing basic economic concepts to even very young children. The math here is simple enough and the story straightforward enough that even young elementary school-age children can follow along. (Potentially even preschoolers might get the gist of it, show more depending on the individual child.) The story, with its bouncy siblings and a happy ending, make the book accessible and fun; it does not sound like a textbook at all.

The illustrations are pretty basic (lacking elaborate backgrounds, for example) but they are a good fit for this book. Honey is a female rabbit, which is nice because so many children's books have male protagonists, even when the characters are animals. We only ever see Honey's siblings and father, so this could potentially be a single parent situation (or at a minimum, can be interpreted as such), which is also nice to see as many children live with a single parent but don't necessarily see that reflected in the picture books they read. show less

McLeod's first Moneybunny book featured a little girl bunny who wanted to be a famous singer but learns that hard work is the only way to get anywhere. The next title, featuring a little boy bunny named Sonny, clicked with me much more and it's one I can see recommending frequently to parents.

Sonny, an exuberant gray bunny with a striped shirt, blue shorts, and long ears, gets his allowance of three carrots every Saturday. He wants to buy EVERYTHING but he doesn't have enough carrots. His show more mom calmly tells him he will have to make a choice about what's important and goes back to raking leaves. Sonny does some basic math - he wants three things, he has three carrots, but his mom tells him he has to think it through a little more! The things he wants cost more than one carrot each. After some hard though, he decides on a pogo stick, which costs three carrots, and is happy with his choice.

This is a very simple introduction to the concept of buying things. The simple illustrations are humorous and don't detract from the lesson of the story, that Sonny has to make a choice about what he will spend his money on. Of course, the concept can be a lot more complicated, especially for kids who don't get an allowance, but this is a good, easy introduction for preschoolers about how money works. Future titles will cover saving and giving money.

Verdict: There are very few picture books covering money for the preschool crowd. Match this one with Lemonade in winter and Pretty Penny (now out of print) for a good beginning lesson on handling money.

ISBN: 9780399544460; Published March 2019 by Penguin; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library show less

Love the idea, don't love the execution. Simplistic and kind of classist in assuming that families will have allowances to give to kids.

Great concept, shaky execution. The "become rich and famous" aspiration is...definitely not the only occupation they could have or should have gone with (and I say this as someone that sings as part of my job).