Mary Elizabeth Salzmann jam-packed more information about money, nutrition, and value than I would have thought possible in a 24 page book meant for school children. This kid friendly interactive book takes the reader in small steps along with the main character Adam through life lessons about using money wisely.  “Meet Adam! Adam’s parents give him money. He gets to decide what to buy. Follow along with Adam as he tries to make good decisions.” ( The reader must make some allowances for Adam’s utopic life : his parents always have money to give to him, his parents always let Adam keep the change, and sales tax is automatically included in the price of the item. )   The reader follows Adam through his 5 food purchasing choices : snack – $3.51, dinner- $4.55, dessert – $4.00, lunch – $4.00, and breakfast – $3.75. Each time, some possible choices will be too expensive and some will not be a good value.  ” Remember that value is a combination of price, quantity, and quality. You usually can’t have the best of all three…”

There is an incongruency on pages 18-19 over the price of the yogurt and the amount of money Adam has available to spend.

I especially like that the money is always a photo of our most current coins and bills, instead of an illustration.