Tara Pays Up!

August 1, 2006
Gr. 1-3. Tara finally saves $8 to buy a kit at the crafts store only to find that the cashier wants another 80 cents. Explaining the concept of paying taxes for city services, Tara's older sister shells out the change and makes a deal: Tara must pay her 10 cents every time she uses a city service. Soon those dimes mount up, as Tara learns that she uses tax-paid services every time she goes to school, turns on the faucet, reads a library book, or even walks on the sidewalk. Nicely paced, the story imparts information without becoming bogged down in a civics lesson. Small sidebars on many pages provide additional facts, but most readers will stick with the narrative, which shows that tax dollars go toward many services that children use. This paperback will be a good addition to community-service units in the primary grades.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)