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The Big Buck Adventure

Author Shelley Gill, Deborah Tobola

Illustrated by Grace Lin

Paperback

$7.95 US

Charlesbridge

8.5"W x 11"H x 0.13"D (21.6 x 27.9 x 0.3 cm) | 5 oz (153 g) | 80 per carton

On sale Feb 01, 2002 | 32 Pages | 9780881062953

Age 6-9 years | Grades 1-4

Reading Level: Fountas & Pinnell M

Sales rights: World

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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

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.”

Copyright © 2002 by Shelley Gill (Author); Deborah Tobola (Author); Grace Lin (Illustrator). All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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

Shelley Gill is the author of many books, including Alaska, Hawaii, Sitka Rose, and Big Blue. She lives in Homer, Alaska. View titles by Shelley Gill

Deborah Tobola View titles by Deborah Tobola

Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of more than twenty books for children, including the Newbery Honor Book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown), the Geisel Honor Book Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same! (Little, Brown), and The Ugly Vegetables. She is also the co-author and illustrator of Our Seasons. She lives in Florence, Massachusetts. View titles by Grace Lin

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