THE SHORT SELLER

Name: THE SHORT SELLER
Author: Elissa Brent Weissman
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5255-8

by Elissa Brent Weissman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2013

While the slow start and trappings of finance culture will deter some readers, those who are drawn in by Lindy’s passion and...

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A seventh-grader plays the stock market.

Lindy isn’t ready for her math test, and coming down with mononucleosis is one way to get out of going to school. In the month that Lindy’s home sick, her father gives her $100 to play with on his stock-trading site. Though Lindy thinks of herself as “dense at math,” she is more than able to pick up the concepts when they have a practical use. Aided by the book Buying Stock for Dummies, Lindy immerses herself in the stock market. Her rate of return on her $100 is excellent, so it’s completely safe to dip into her parents’ capital, right? But the stock market is more volatile than Lindy realizes—and so are junior high friendships. While she’s been home focusing on the NASDAQ, her friends have formed new relationships without her. Lindy’s enthusiasm is infectious but sometimes impenetrable. The mathematical and functional aspects of selling stock are explained fairly clearly, but the social aspects of finance, from CNBC to the Wall Street Journal, from television analysts to certified financial advisors, lack explication.

While the slow start and trappings of finance culture will deter some readers, those who are drawn in by Lindy’s passion and the fun math puzzles will be rewarded by a startlingly suspenseful conclusion, with far more at stake than mere classroom drama . (Fiction. 11-12)

Pub Date: May 7, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-4424-5255-8

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: March 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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SNOW DAY

by Daniel Peddle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2000

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Peddle debuts with a small, wordless epiphany that flows like an animated short. A low winter sun first lights a child building a snowman, then, after a gloriously starry night, returns to transform it—to melt it. Leaving most of each page untouched, Peddle assembles a minimum of accurately brushed pictorial elements for each scene: the builder; the snow figure; their lengthening shadows; the rising sun’s coruscating circle in the penultimate picture; a scatter of sticks, coal, and a carrot in the final one. Most children will still prefer The Snowy Day, but others may find layers of meaning beneath the story’s deceptive simplicity. (Picture book. 4-9)

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-385-32693-9

Page Count: 28

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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SCARLETTE BEANE

by Karen Wallace ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2000

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So joyous is most of this tale from Wallace that it all but subverts the act of magic serving as the climax. Scarlette Beane is a born gardener, not just with a green thumb, but with green fingers as well. She lives in a small home with her parents, “so they worked outside as much as they could.” They are also avid gardeners, too; the days are clear and they are a supremely merry lot. Scarlette is given a garden when she turns five, and proceeds to grow colossal vegetables that have to be individually harvested with machines. Everyone in the village comes to help, and then to eat the soup made from the bounty. They must eat outside because the house is too small, but no one minds such a glorious picnic, even when it rains. That night, Scarlette creeps out of bed to a high meadow and plants a bunch of seeds in a hole. The next day, a castle of vegetables rises from the meadow: “Mrs. Beane kissed her daughter’s face. ‘I knew you’d do something wonderful,’ she whispered.” Since their small house has suited them so beautifully, this ending has the feel of gilding the lily. Thickly painted, expressively modeled artwork adds to the atmosphere of green and growing miracles. (Picture book. 3-7)