An entertaining, instructive novel about a kid-driven business.
A boy learns about math and entrepreneurship when he launches a pool-cleaning business.
In this debut middle-grade novel, Chance Sterling has his sights set on earning enough money to buy a new bike. Since his dad pays him $10 a week to clean the family’s pool, Chance is looking at months of work before he reaches his goal—and that’s if he stops treating himself to ice cream and other indulgences. Chance decides to turn pool cleaning into a business, finding other customers in his neighborhood. He slowly builds his client base, goes into partnership with his sister, Addison—who was thinking of competing with him by starting her own pool-cleaning business,—and stocks up on equipment. Chance runs into problems at every turn, and with his dad’s advice, he learns about customer acquisition costs, profit margins, employee management, and lots of math. Although the story follows a coherent plot, it’s as much a teaching tool as a novel, with the math shown in detail for each of Chance’s calculations (for instance, he determines how much more quickly he will reach his goal after adding a second client). A series of questions at the end of each chapter encourages readers to assess Chance’s decision-making (“How would things be different with a partner? What adjustments would you have to make?”). The text itself is also full of teaching moments; Chance’s dad explains how to find vendors, calculate profit, and conduct market research. Many of the business developments fit smoothly into the book’s plot, like when Chance subcontracts pool-cleaning jobs to his friend Amit and then has a difficult conversation when Amit’s performance isn’t satisfactory. Searfoss is generally a strong writer, with a talent for revealing Chance’s tendency toward melodrama (he refers to himself as an “impoverished ten-year-old” when bemoaning how long it will take to afford the new bike), so readers who pick up the book for lessons in entrepreneurship will find it highly readable.
An entertaining, instructive novel about a kid-driven business.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-67-241141-7
Page Count: 125
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid.
Black sixth-grader Jake Liston can only play one song on the piano. He can’t read music very well, and he can’t improvise. So how did Jake get accepted to the Music and Art Academy? He faked it.
Alongside an eclectic group of academy classmates, and with advice from his best friend, Jake tries to fit in at a school where things like garbage sculpting and writing art reviews of bird poop splatter are the norm. All is well until Jake discovers that the end-of-the-semester talent show is only two weeks away, and Jake is short one very important thing…talent. Or is he? It’s up to Jake to either find the talent that lies within or embarrass himself in front of the entire school. Light and humorous, with Knight’s illustrations adding to the fun, Jake’s story will likely appeal to many middle-grade readers, especially those who might otherwise be reluctant to pick up a book. While the artsy antics may be over-the-top at times, this is a story about something that most preteens can relate to: the struggle to find your authentic self. And in a world filled with books about wanting to fit in with the athletically gifted supercliques, this novel unabashedly celebrates the artsy crowd in all of its quirky, creative glory.
A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-52351-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
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