Pretty Penny Sets Up Shop

November 15, 2010
Kinch's debut affirms the idea of moneymaking as a way to achieve praiseworthy goals—to celebrate a relative's birthday, for example. The appropriately named Penny has doll-like eyes, glossy black hair, designer boots, and a pink shoulder bag—think Emily the Not-so-Strange. When her grandmother Bunny waves off her offer of a birthday party ("There is no reason to spend money on a party for a little ol' lady like me"), six-year-old Penny sets up a store, the "Small Mall," to sell Bunny's unwanted attic junk so she can throw her a surprise party. Kinch provides readers with plenty of chat about money and where it comes from ("Bunny owns this yellow building from top to bottom. She... rents out three tidy apartments to neighbors"), polished spreads that include spots crammed with hats, shoes, and other consumer treats; and the occasional moral lesson ("This is not my money—it belongs to Bunny"). This is an honest acknowledgment of the centrality of money in the lives of many young girls, and an attempt to tame and direct it. Ages 4–8.

December 1, 2010
Writing a book about earning money—working, that is—that will engage most young kids is no small potato, which is probably one of the reasons we are a nation of debtors. Kinch gives the task a dutiful stab here. The artwork is coolly designerish, with Pretty Penny a doll-like packet of energy—brassy, bossy, determined—racing about her grandmother's big old house with her pet pig, Iggy (whose nostrils look suspiciously like the coin slot in a piggy bank). But the delivery of the story is painfully metronomic—"She racks her brain for one of her big ideas. Nothing comes to her. She just has to wait. And wait some more...Suddenly she has it—a really big idea!" The big idea is to finance a birthday party for her grandmother by staging a sort of yard sale up in her grandmother's attic, selling all her old, unwanted stuff. So Penny affixes price tags and invites the neighbors over to her "small mall," all the while skipping about, swinging her arms like a madwoman and beaming. Despite its emphasis on community and sensible behavior, the leitmotif—financial fundamentals are fun—feels desperately forced. (Picture book. 4-8)

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February 1, 2011

K-Gr 2-Every summer, Penny stays with her grandmother. Bunny owns a four-story apartment building with an attic on top that contains all of her "stuff." This visit, the six-year-old would like to have a birthday party for Bunny but doesn't have any money to do so, so she decides to sell her grandmother's treasures, with permission. She sorts and cleans and puts prices on all of the things in the attic for her "Small Mall." On sale day, many of the building's residents come to shop, and Penny takes in 10 dollars, but she knows it really belongs to Bunny. The older woman, of course, says that Penny earned the money and can keep it, and the child buys 10 cupcakes and invites the building's residents to her grandmother's apartment for a surprise party. Penny has a pet pig and her grandmother has a cat. Both slightly anthropomorphic animals appear on almost every page. Some of the illustrations are full spreads, but many are just two views per page of Penny preparing for her event. Overall, this money-management primer doesn't accomplish much.-Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI

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