Great guidance for building good fiscal habits; shockingly bad advice about investing.
A mixed bag of financial advice aimed at girls.
Thought-provoking activities and budgeting suggestions pepper this entertaining, illustrated guide for girls interested in money. In casual, approachable language, Tomlinson introduces financial ideas, guiding readers to think about their own needs and personalities in order to plan for the future. Advice on why and how to save (for an implied audience of girls without dire financial need) is solid, and the cheerful artwork and journaling activities make the dry subject matter approachable. Though some debunked research is cited in supporting stories, much of the advice is valuable, from standard methods of budgeting to warnings about online scams and buy now, pay later schemes. The section on investing, however, ranges from inexplicable (suggestions to monitor the Consumer Price Index or lists of adult investment vehicles) to inappropriately risky (an exploration of the stock market, with a brief afterthought about the illegality of minors trading) to downright terrible (a factually incorrect discussion of cryptocurrency that treats it as a risky-but-viable investment). Despite some unhelpful jargon (“Debt is a form of financial instrument”), the concepts are generally clearly explained overall. Illustrations feature people who are diverse in skin tone, although nearly all the chapter-opening images are of light-skinned girls.
Great guidance for building good fiscal habits; shockingly bad advice about investing. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-7112-7636-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
Cogent of topic, but for readability, it’s aptly titled.
In urgent tones, a call for action as climate change and continuing waste and pollution of available fresh water pose imminent threats to human health and agriculture.
Drawing from recently published reports and news stories, Kallen paints an alarming picture. Aquifers are being sucked dry by large-scale agriculture, lake levels are falling, and water sources above- and belowground are being polluted. Though he points to a few significant counterefforts—the Clean Water Act (1972) in the United States and local initiatives elsewhere, such as “rainwater harvesting” ponds in India and Kenya—these come off as spotty responses that are often hobbled by political and corporate foot-dragging. He also points to shrinking glaciers and snow packs (plus, for added gloom, superstorms like Sandy) as harbingers of climate change that will lead to widespread future disaster. Aside from occasional incidents or examples and rare if telling photos, though, this jeremiad is largely composed of generalities and big numbers—not a formula for motivating young readers. Nor does the author offer budding eco-activists much in the way of either hope or ways to become part of the solution; for the latter, at least, Cathryn Berger Kaye’s Going Blue: A Teen’s Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands (2010) is a better choice.
Cogent of topic, but for readability, it’s aptly titled. (source notes, multimedia resource lists, index) (Nonfiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4677-2646-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
A bare-bones introduction for readers without a pre-existing interest.
A quick history of hacking, from the “phone phreaks” of the 1960s to today’s attacks on commercial data stores large and small.
Drawing solely from previously published reports and documents, the authors paint an alarming picture (“The internet has become a cyber criminal playground”) as they trace the growth of increasingly sophisticated digital attacks on personal, corporate and government data systems. Though they rightly point out that many hackers, from early “phreaks” like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on, have been motivated more by the pleasures of creating software or high-tech gear (or, as they acknowledge in the case of Edward Snowden, idealism) than criminal intent, most of the incidents they describe involve theft or espionage. Noting that attacks can come from anywhere in the world and that malware can be secretly installed not just on computers, but on any number of gadgets, the authors project little hope of keeping our information safe from bad guys. Nor do they offer more than, at best, bare mention of firewalls, encryption, two-step verification, strong passwords and other protective countermeasures. Still, readers will at least come away more aware of the range of hazards, from phishing and ransomware to botnets and distributed denial of service, as well as the huge, rapidly increasing amounts of money and data shadowy entities are raking in.
A bare-bones introduction for readers without a pre-existing interest. (source notes, bibliography, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 12-14)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4677-2512-5
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
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