Dirt Cheap
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A young entrepreneur sets out to earn some money and discovers the value of a dollar (and of dirt)! Perfect for fans of Lemonade in Winter, The Most Magnificent Thing, and Rosie Revere, Engineer.
Birdie doesn't know much about money. All she knows is that she wants a new soccer ball that costs $24.95. The fastest way to that $24.95 is going into sales, but what to sell?
All her belongings?
Not much of a market for those.
Birdie needs something that she has in abundance and that everyone needs. So when she sees everyone in her neighborhood working on their yards, she realizes she's hit pay dirt. Literally!
Soon Birdie is raking in the dough, with profits of all varieties: quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies, even dollar bills! Now she can buy that soccer ball, but does her business plan have any holes?
An industrious tale about striking it rich!
"A terrific treatise for early financial literacy that subtly teaches about worth determination, pricing structures, coin values, marketing techniques, and the reward of hard work, all supported by a delightful story with a round-headed protagonist in amusingly huge, face-swallowing glasses and itty-bitty pigtails."--Booklist
"Our heroine has a positive outlook and doesn't let things get her down. The book demonstrates how even a young child can be a great entrepreneur. A light, fun, and educational tale that would work wonderfully as a two-voice read-aloud."--SLJ
"Hoffman's acrylic and color pencil illustrations are pleasingly eccentric. There's a stealthy math lesson here as Birdie counts her coins, and her can-do attitude makes for a nice message about the value of hard work."--The Bulletin
"Hoffmann cleverly intertwines early math skills with messages of working toward goals and problem-solving. Worth it, dirt and all."--Kirkus
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Every great businessperson starts out small. Hoffmann's (Fruit Bowl) unseen interlocutor introduces readers to Birdie, a girl with huge yellow glasses who yearns for a XR1000 Super Extreme Soccer Ball that costs : "It's so beautiful. I want it. I need it!" she tells the audience. "Well," says the narrator, "soccer balls cost money. How much ya got?" The answer is zilch until Birdie, noticing how she's surrounded by yards and gardens, starts selling the dirt from her yard at 25 a bag. As the colorful acrylic and pencil drawings depict the customers literally piling up, readers also get a lesson in money-related computation Birdie discovers that 25 can be five nickels, 25 pennies, and so on. But the joy of owning the XR1000 is short-lived; now Birdie has no yard to play in, and in a wordless, bird's-eye view spread, Birdie's parents emerge from the front door and discover the trench that now encircles their house. Capitalism to the rescue again only no more selling stuff. Birdie earns the money to replace the dirt by entering the gig economy: "Try Birdie's Lawn Care." Can an IPO be far behind? Ages 3 7. Correction: A previous version of this review misstated the author's last name.
