A newly minted quarter rolls out into the wide world in this lighthearted travelogue from the author of Mapping Penny’s World (2000). It’s a bumpy ride for “George,” as he’s trucked to a bank, dropped into an alternating series of cash registers and pockets while being used to buy food, toys, pets, and plants, repeatedly lost and found, given to charity, used to pay a debt, and finally returned to the bank in a savings-account deposit. Undaunted, he’s ready for more: “I wonder where I’ll go tomorrow?” Along the way, he meets other denominations (“Just call me Abe”), and figures prominently in plenty of adding and subtracting while helping to make purchases or change. Leedy mixes images of actual bills and coins into her simply drawn cartoons (page numbers are in currency) and discourses on history, design, and the “50 States Quarters” program too; child readers will never look at their pocket change—or arithmetic, for that matter—in quite the same way. (afterword, glossary) (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)
