Product Review: Money Madness [Paperback] (Ages 5+)
This beginning guide to economics will have readers thinking about the purpose, and not just the value, of money.
The main important function of money is that it is used as a medium of exchange in order to facilitate transactions. Money also serves as storage of value and a unit of account with the key to its success being the connection of money to a common measure. After all, you may not think that my book collection is worth as much as your car but we can probably agree that if we used the United States dollar as the unit of exchange for your vehicle, we could more easily come to a sale agreement. The interesting thing that I find about money is that it is continuously fluctuating in value and I enjoy studying why and how we has humans controls things like exchange rates, import tariffs, interest rates to price ceilings that positively or negatively affect the value we assign to our currency. Throw in our deep connection within the global markets and it is a wonder we can ever accurately assess any economic policy before implementation. In many ways, I see economics as more of an art rather than a science and Money Madness is a wonderful early introduction for children on how and why the assignment of money is so important in today’s society.
The Money Madness book is a historic and fundamental overview of money in an easy-to-grasp concept for children as young as five. It starts with great ‘W’ questions that kids may wonder about when it comes to economics. What’s all this money madness? Why do people want money? How would you be able to buy things like a loaf of bread if money did not exist? The book then starts talking about the history of money and how our currency used to be backed by gold and that each country has and assigns different values to their currency. I really liked the simple discussion the book ties into pricing and value or our currency (i.e. prices go up and the value of our dollar goes down) as well as the future of money in our digital age. I think this book provides a simplified but accurate description for helping children understand the basics behind money and exchange. The portrait and background information of the people listed on the United States bills from $1 to the $100 dollar bill (quick fact – Alexander Hamilton is the only person born outside the United States that is featured on our U.S. currency) on the back cover was a nice touch.
Bonus! Money Madness Classroom Activities for Grades K-3 here. For additional reading and plans under the State of Vermont’s ‘Reading is an Investment Program’ check out their Officer of the State Treasurer’s website on the program here.
About Author David A. Adler: David Adler is a father of four and a former math teacher from New York that has written over one hundred children’s books. His passionate at making math fun and enjoyable for kids comes from his background of teaching math to children. Check out his other math books through Holiday House; Fun with Roman Numerals, Working with Fractions, and You Can, Toucan and Math. David’s personal website shows his complete works including the popular mystery series, Cam Jansen!
Money Madness [Paperback] (Ages 5+)
List Price: $ 6.95
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