Pretty Penny Makes Ends Meet

December 1, 2012
In her latest book, Penny uses her craft skills to help her grandmother pay for some home repairs. From page 1, readers who have not read about Penny's previous monetary escapades (Pretty Penny Sets up Shop, 2010, etc.) will be slightly lost, as Bunny (Penny's grandmother), Iggy, (an animated stuffed pig?) and the Small Mall (an attic space for crafting and displaying sale items) are never explained. A noise in the night turns out to be a flood in the basement that will cost $100 to fix(!), but Bunny has spent all the money budgeted for house repairs. Penny sleeps on the problem, waking up with the solution--a jewelry show. After two days of crafting, the Small Mall is ready for friends and neighbors to browse. Though Penny makes $60 from the jewelry sale, she has to subtract the $10 spent on supplies to find their profit. Wooden dialogue and stilted sentences plague this outing, and readers will have to suspend some disbelief to get through it--how are customers to get to a shop in the house's attic? Do Penny and Iggy go to the craft store on their own? And why is the plumber still working and Bunny still mopping two days later? Kinch's digital illustrations are bright and detailed, though there are a few missteps--the shadows are off, and Bunny is far from "knee-deep in water," as described. More than a few pennies shy of a full dollar. (Picture book. 5-8)

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January 1, 2013

K-Gr 3-The "Pretty Penny" series offers financial role modeling by young Penny and her pet pig, Iggy. In this entry, Grandma Bunny's budget is strained by home repairs. Penny wants to help, so she buys supplies, creates jewelry, and sells it to friends and neighbors. She explains how to calculate profit, then donates her earnings and her time to help Bunny fix the plumbing. On the one hand, the storytelling is clunky (this title does not stand alone well) and overly cutesy (there's an anthropomorphic pig in an otherwise realistic story). On the other hand, the book is unashamedly agenda-driven for a good cause: helping children develop a healthy relationship with money. The jewelry-making and shopping aspects may well serve as hooks, especially for girls, and Penny's empowered competence will be attractive to any child. Readers will come away with a clear understanding of how they can earn money, and Penny's noble motives serve to remove any taint of greed from the topic. Naive cartoon illustrations in candy-bright colors add to the cheerful atmosphere. Despite the book's weaknesses, the importance of the topic and the dearth of materials addressing it make this a useful addition for most libraries.-Heidi Estrin, Congregation B'nai Israel, Boca Raton, FL

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013
In Pretty Penny's latest vehicle, she makes and sells jewelry to help her grandmother pay for an unexpected plumbing repair. The noble storyline is hampered by Penny's false-sounding dialogue and only a weak level of suspense, but the built-in math and finance lesson is practical and informative. The black-and-pink-clad little girl has a hipster look in the flat anime-like art.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)