Product Description

(Ages: 6-9) The Nelly Longhair doll, the object of Isabel's desire, is on sale at Murphy's Toys for ten dollars. But Isabel has only fifty cents.

Isabel decides to start a car wash business; she's sure she can make money. But at the hardware store she learns that her supplies will cost five dollars! She thinks long and hard and comes up with a plan. If five of her friends will give her one dollar each, she'll have enough. She tells her friends she'll work very hard and believes she'll be able to pay them back, plus extra!

Sheila Bair, who also wrote Rock, Brock, and the Savings Shock, lives in Maryland. The author includes a note on investing in a business and buying stocks. Judy Stead's brightly colored artwork complements the story. She lives in North Carolina.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66005 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Library Binding
• 28 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780807536520
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 4—Isabel wants to buy a doll that costs 10 dollars, but she only has 50 cents. She looks around for a way to earn the money and settles on washing cars. At the hardware store, she discovers that the necessary soap and "shammies" will cost five dollars. She asks five friends to each give her a dollar, promising that she'll soon return it plus a little more, and uses the money to buy the supplies. Isabel is a hard worker and her business takes off. At the end of the day, she has 20 dollars. Keeping half for herself, she pays each friend two dollars. Everybody wins: Isabel earns enough for the doll and her investors make a profit doing nothing at all. It's American capitalism at work! The cartoon illustrations look rather 1950s-ish, featuring characters with long, skinny limbs and large, round faces. The pictures are colorful and help simplify this rather wordy book about a complicated topic. An author's note explains stock-market basics. This is a good primer for budding entrepreneurs.—Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Sheila Bair, who also wrote Rock, Brock, and the Savings Shock, lives in Maryland. The author includes a note on investing in a business and buying stocks.

Judy Stead's brightly colored artwork complements the story. She lives in North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children
Isabel Dinero, a resourceful child with good ideas, has a dilemma. The doll she wants more than anything else in the world has gone on sale for ten dollars, but Isabel has only fifty cents to her name. Undaunted, she decides to earn the money by holding a car wash. After all, the recent spate of bad weather had left many car owners with dirty cars and long lines at the car wash. As a budding entrepreneur, Isabel soon encounters a stumbling block: she needs five dollars to purchase special car-washing soap and towels before she can start her business. Her solution is to borrow a dollar from each of her five friends, with the promise that she will pay them back from the profits, plus a small extra amount. Will Isabel's friends see a return on their investment to compensate them for the risk they are taking?

This superb book, written by the current chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and one of the most influential women in the business world, provides an excellent opportunity to improve the financial literacy of young children. Sophisticated ideas such as financial risk, entrepreneurship, and profits are carefully woven into an enjoyable story that children will understand. The bright, cheerful illustrations further contribute to the book's appeal. With the financial crisis having made headlines all over the world, this book could not come at a better time.

A Note About The Author
The author has quite an impressive resume - don't be fooled by the limited description shown here. Check this out:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YWYzMTYxYjBmNTRlZjllZTUwM2UyOGVlNjI3NWNkOTc=