School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Because she wants to buy a doll, Isabel opens her own car-washing business with money she receives from five friends, her investors. This book, written by a former FDIC chairperson, teaches the basics of starting a business, investing, and risk. The appended explanatory note will be more interesting to budding investors than the forced story line. Brightly colored drawings illustrate events. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.