The Big Buck Adventure

by Shelley Gill, Deborah Tobola, Grace Lin (Illustrator)

Overview

One little girl and one very big dollar set out on a great adventure at the store.

However, what seems like a pleasant afternoon of shopping soon turns perplexing as the challenge of her buying options becomes overwhelming. She doesn't know what to do. There are so many choices, but she only has one buck. A fun and perfect example of how we use math in our daily lives.

"This sprightly rhyming excursion into buying power puts lie to the notion that economics is by nature a dreary topic." —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780881062953
Publisher:	Charlesbridge
Publication date:	02/01/2002
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,077,264
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.13(d)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Author, adventurer, whale detective, pony wrangler, dog musher and all around fun hog, Shelley Gill lives her books! Shelley is the author of several children's books, including ALASKA, HAWAI'I, and SITKA ROSE. She was previously an editor at Alaska Woman magazine, and also worked as a reporter, editor, and publisher for the Frontiersman and Valley Sun newspapers in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. Shelley lives with her family on a ridge above Kachemak Bay in Homer, Alaska.

Read an Excerpt

Saturday morning, I sure am in luck!
A raise in allowance—I get a buck!
Dad drops me at the store with a new green bill.
He says, “I’ll be back at a quarter ‘til.”

Editorial Reviews

This sprightly rhyming excursion into buying power puts lie to the notion that economics is by nature a dreary topic.

When the first-person narrator is given a raise in allowance, visions of new perchases fill her head. As she shops the store's candy, toy, deli, and pet departments, she is overwhelmed by the multiplicity of deals offered by eager merchants—ample opportunity to figureo ut the best deal mathematically. "A penny for your thoughts," says one merchant as the girl opts for something really unusual—to spend not a cent, and to tuck her money into a bank at home, but only after a nicely turned pitch of her own: "Why you can have one hundred/of my thoughts for a dollar!/Ten thoughts for a dime,/five for a nickel/twenty-five thoughts/for a sour dill pickle." If the value of money is in its possibilities, rather than its purchases, readers, too, will be relieved when the girl leaves the store. Lin's illustrations make the mayhem memorable in an easy book to pair with Scieszka and Smith's Math Curse.
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

"Saturday morning, I sure am in luck!/ A raise in allowance--I get a buck!" Yes, one dollar is the buck featured in this feeble tale. When her father drops her at a store offering wares ranging from stuffed animals to beef jerky, the young narrator explores her purchasing options, with the aid of clerks whose last names (Cash, Silver, Buck, Penny) are as trite as the book's rhyming verses. Lin's (The Ugly Vegetables) artwork often further complicates some already elaborate scenarios: even though the text, "Four quarters times three equals/ twelve gummy bear treats,/ a much better deal/ than ten at ten cents each," makes no mention of other candies, the illustration introduces candy sticks and gumballs into the mix. All the options throw the would-be consumer into such a tizzy that she, predictably, decides to bank her buck. Without a clear depiction of the addition at work here (and some unrealistic prices to boot) and featuring photos of a dollar bill and coins superimposed on bland, stylized pictures, this thin story offers little adventure. Ages 5-9. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly