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Follow the Money: A Fun Financial Literacy Game for Kids
Kids will love learning about money with this exciting game of financial literacy for ages 8 to 12! Does your child understand how money works? Maybe not yet—but Follow the Money will give them the tools they need to manage their money now and down the line. They’ll learn important financial skills, complete activities that reinforce these skills, and make informed choices that either add to or subtract from their Treasure Chest of (pretend) money in this fun, interactive game. Designed to help parents who don’t feel comfortable teaching finances to their child, this accessible book Easy-to-understand money lessons for kids with real-life They’ll learn how to budget, save for a special event or item, calculate a tip, avoid scams, and more. Fun activities that reinforce each They’ll plan a party with a budget, choose school supplies (basic or personalized?), pay for a video game, differentiate between assets and debts, buy and sell stocks, and so on. A unique Readers add or subtract money from their Treasure Chest as they move through the book, depending on the choices they make in the activities. How much money will they have at the end? Kids taking They decide which job to take, where to spend their money, how to invest their earnings, and more. A handy Here are important financial concepts kids need to know—and an answer key that explains the age-appropriate math needed to make the financial decisions in the activities. Written by a certified teacher, financial writer, and founder of Let’s Make It Grow, a project focused on helping parents raise financially confident kids, Follow the Money is essential reading for kids who need to learn money basics. As David Bach, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Automatic Millionaire, The Latte Factor, and more, says, “I am often asked what’s a good book for kids and money—and Follow the Money is it. Parents now have an easy roadmap to use to empower their kids when it comes to learning about money with confidence.”
160 pages, Paperback
Published August 4, 2026
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Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A Worksheet Wearing a Pirate Hat
Alaina Trivax’s “Follow the Money” turns treasure, taxes, dog-walking, late fees, and suspicious sneakers into a lesson in consequence
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | July 21st, 2026
Decisions are the real currency of Alaina Trivax’s “Follow the Money.” The pretend dollars matter, naturally; the reader begins with $200, earns more, loses some, borrows, spends, saves, invests, and watches a running Treasure Chest rise and fall. But the better game is not arithmetic. It is rehearsal. Trivax has built less a bright little finance primer than a child-sized consequence machine: a place where an 8-to-12-year-old can choose, misjudge, subtract, check the math, erase, and try again before adult life starts charging late fees with less pedagogical mercy.
Even in a culture saturated with money chatter – prices, warnings, advice, bills half-heard from another room – children often meet money as adult weather: everywhere, decisive, explained in fragments, and most legible when someone says no. “Follow the Money” tries to make that weather measurable. It does not ask children to worship the dollar, hustle before breakfast, or become miniature portfolio managers in sneakers. Its bargain is concrete: let the child see the cost before the bill is real. Money comes in. Money goes out. Some choices feel good now and cost later. Some dull choices protect future happiness. Some shiny bargains have teeth. Obvious? Perhaps. But many financial headaches begin in things everyone supposedly understood.
Money in Trivax’s pages is never allowed to stay misty. The reader discovers that money can be saved, spent, donated, or invested; that cash is only one form of it; that a bank account, debit card, check, app, credit card, and asset each behaves differently; that a bike may keep some value, though not all of it; that a credit card is borrowed money in a plastic disguise. The terms keep finding objects with stickers, menus, and checkout totals: cookies, backpacks, dogs, birthday parties, school supplies, snacks, video games, vacations. Trivax rarely lets vocabulary drift into adult fog. She pins it to a receipt.
Educationally, the order of lessons matters more than it first appears. The seven chapters move from money basics to earning, budgeting, saving, spending, credit and borrowing, and investing. Trivax does not open with market sparkle or compound-interest glitter. She begins with the verbs that make later subjects intelligible: earn, divide, wait, compare, borrow, repay. Only after the reader has walked dogs, planned a party, chosen school supplies, calculated tax, and met the small gremlin of fees does the guide arrive at stocks, bonds, mutual funds, certificates of deposit, inflation, volatility, crypto, and scams. In a children’s finance book, this is not housekeeping. It is moral sequencing.
The mechanism is plain: define, dramatize, calculate, add or subtract. A weaker version of this design would feel like a worksheet wearing a pirate hat. “Follow the Money” sometimes comes close, especially when the later chapters strain the backpack, but the pattern earns its keep when the Treasure Chest stops being a scoreboard and becomes memory. The total remembers the choice. The child chooses between jobs, starts a pet-care business, pays start-up costs, earns revenue, confronts expenses, and eventually calculates taxes. The pet-care business is the book’s neatest continuing device: a miniature system of labor, customers, supplies, advertising, profit, uneven income, and reinvestment, all without requiring the child to form a limited liability company before lunch.
Reality, of course, has padded corners in this workbook world. A child’s business in “Follow the Money” can grow after buying a multi-way leash and extra dog treats; a birthday-party budget can be repaired by changing the dessert. Money off the page is not so easily called to order. Still, the simplification has a purpose. It gives the reader a safe version of budgeting’s hard lesson: yes to this means no, or not yet, to that. The reader chooses among a trampoline park, mini golf, pizza, tacos, cookies, custom cupcakes, a big-city trip with pricier attractions, and a smaller-town trip with more room to roam. The lesson is not austerity, that joyless vegetable of adult advice. It is selection.
In prose, Trivax writes for pencil pressure rather than display. The sentences are short to medium, direct, and unfussy; they know where the exit is. The rhythm is teacherly without wagging a finger: here is the term, here is what it means, here is what it might look like after school on a Thursday, now you try. The diction is simple without becoming sticky-sweet. The imagery is practical rather than lush: snack menus, school-shopping lists, ATMs, fake websites. This is not prose asking to be framed. It is prose asking to be written in, preferably with an eraser nearby.
Perhaps the most valuable stylistic choice is calm. Taxes, late fees, credit scores, scams, bankruptcy, investment losses – these could easily become either alarmist or absurdly upbeat. Trivax chooses an unswooning register. She explains that borrowing has a cost, that missing a payment changes the total, that a low credit score can make later borrowing more expensive, that a too-good-to-be-true sneaker site may be exactly as reliable as a cardboard umbrella. The guide is never cruel to the child for choosing poorly. Financial education often arrives in adult life as shame with charts. “Follow the Money” makes correction part of the game.
A strong run of pages moves from spending into credit, where the guide shifts from immediate choice to delayed consequence. First the reader distinguishes wants from needs through school shopping: themed supplies or basic ones, brand-name shoes or store-brand, customized backpack or plain. Then come payment methods, change, checks, debit cards, phone apps, unit costs, discounts, sales tax, tips, donations, and scams. By the time credit appears, the reader has already practiced spending as choice rather than impulse. The credit chapter then introduces delay: buy now, pay later, and learn that later is not a magical country where bills go to sleep. A missed payment, interest charge, or late fee changes the Treasure Chest. Borrowed money has a memory.
Placed beside “Bunny Money” by Rosemary Wells, Trivax’s method becomes clearer. Wells understands that children grasp spending when they can watch money dwindle; Max and Ruby’s wallet has comic suspense. Trivax, writing for older children, extends that visible subtraction into a larger ledger of work, cost, debt, and risk. “Those Shoes” by Maribeth Boelts, meanwhile, gives wants-versus-needs the ache of social longing; the desired object carries embarrassment, belonging, envy, generosity. Trivax gives the same category a table and a total. Boelts is emotionally richer. Trivax is more ready for the kitchen table or classroom desk. “Follow the Money” belongs closer to the pencil-and-margin shelf than the story shelf, but it shares with both books a belief that children already know objects are never only objects.
Accumulation never becomes the only moral, which is one of the guide’s saving graces. Donation appears as one possible use of money, and the text distinguishes wants from needs without treating wants as wicked little freeloaders. That generosity keeps the Treasure Chest from becoming a tiny altar to optimization. Still, the running total tugs. Because nearly every choice becomes an addition or subtraction, money can begin to look like a game to win rather than a set of relationships to understand. The book mostly resists this, but the ledger is always whispering.
During the later chapters, the backpack begins to strain. Credit reports, bankruptcy, market swings, mutual funds, bonds, certificates of deposit, inflation, the Rule of 72, cryptocurrency, and investment scams are crowded machinery for a 160-page children’s guide, and Trivax handles the load with admirable steadiness. But the gap between an 8-year-old and a 12-year-old is not a crack in the sidewalk; it is a bridge. A 12-year-old with a patient adult nearby may enjoy being handed the grown-up machinery. An 8-year-old may feel as though someone has handed over a calculator and pointed toward a small mountain. The reach gives the book muscle; the weight still lands on a child’s desk.
In the investing chapter, that ambition becomes clearest. Trivax does not present investing as a secret staircase to wealth. She begins with assets, debts, and net worth, then moves through stocks, bonds, mutual funds, risk, return, diversification, volatility, inflation, and scams. The reader can choose investments and see different outcomes: safer options grow more slowly, riskier ones wobble or fall, suspicious promises cost money. The best investing lesson here is not the familiar trumpet call to start early, though that note is present. It is the quieter habit of asking what risk is hiding inside excitement.
More than many children’s money books, “Follow the Money” understands that the first problem is not ignorance alone but money’s disappearing act. Money now often appears to children as a tap, swipe, password, app, subscription, delivery, discount code, or adult mutter near the grocery shelf. Coins in a jar had their limits, but they at least had weight. Trivax’s ledger restores some of that weight. Add $50. Subtract $20. Pay tax. Lose money to a bad choice. Gain a little interest. The method is blunt in the way a ruler is blunt: no music, but clean measurement. A child cannot learn the shape of a transaction if every transaction arrives as a screen that has already vanished.
I would have liked more attention to the social heat of money. The book includes branded shoes, customized backpacks, school-shopping choices, and family budgets, but it does not linger long on comparison, embarrassment, or the feeling of watching another child buy what you cannot. Those are not side concerns in children’s financial education. They are often where money first becomes personal. “Those Shoes” by Maribeth Boelts knows this in its bones. Trivax understands it as a curriculum pressure more than as a child’s ache. The difference is not fatal, but it marks the boundary between a useful tool and a more emotionally searching book.
The same boundary reveals the cost of neatness. The Treasure Chest makes consequence visible, but it also makes money’s weather look more responsive, legible, and fair than it is. In the guide, decisions produce tidy outcomes. Outside it, the same decision can mean different things depending on family income, parental support, banking access, geography, emergencies, disability, school systems, social pressure, and luck. Trivax gestures toward cost of living and surprise events, and she includes moments of loss and scam, but the governing world remains repairable. Choose, subtract, learn, continue. Humane for a workbook; incomplete as a weather map.
Rated as a whole, “Follow the Money” lands for me at 77/100, which translates under my rubric to a Goodreads-compatible 3/5 stars: an upper-three with real instructional backbone, thoughtfully built and more designed than the average shelf-neighbor, but limited by utilitarian prose, late-chapter crowding, and the necessary tidiness of its simulation.
Others may want from the book what it is not trying to provide: narrative immersion, sentence-level surprise, a fuller account of class, or the ache of a child wanting what the family cannot afford. It offers something sturdier and less glamorous: a tool with pencil marks and a teacher’s hand on it. Not a violin. Not even a shiny new calculator. More like a ruler, a worksheet, and a patient adult who remembers not to sigh.
Parents and caregivers who freeze at the thought of explaining credit scores, interest, or scams may find the book especially welcome. It gives them not only terms, but a first sentence for a conversation many adults postpone. Children who like activities, choices, math, and visible progress may enjoy watching the total change. Children who come hungry for plot may wander off before the next total is due. That is the bargain. “Follow the Money” is not built to enchant a reluctant reader into story transport; it is built to make the next dollar less locked.
On the final page, the Treasure Chest has performed its trick: the number looks like the prize until the child realizes the habit is. The pretend dollars have risen and fallen, but what remains is a practiced pause before a purchase, a loan, a bargain, a risk, a promise. The book’s best legacy is not a child who has “won” the game, but one who has learned to ask what moves next.
Underneath the exercises is a generous belief about childhood: that children can be trusted with more machinery than adults often give them, provided the gears are labeled and nobody yells when the first calculation goes wrong. “Follow the Money” is at its most humane when it remembers that a mistake in pencil is not failure. It is a first draft of judgment.
Look closely, and the treasure is not in the chest at all. It is in the hand hovering over the page, ready to add, subtract, compare, reconsider. Trivax cannot clear the weather around money; no 160-page children’s workbook could. But she has given the reader a small barometer, a sharpened pencil, and a little room before the storm.
One quiet victory is that delay begins to feel like equipment rather than punishment. Wait before buying. Ask before clicking. Save before spending. Read the terms before celebrating the deal. These are small verbs, almost boring, until they become the difference between choice and drift.
Still, the image that remains is not treasure counted, but a hand paused over a total that can change. The coins are imaginary. The second thought is real.
Alaina Trivax’s “Follow the Money” turns treasure, taxes, dog-walking, late fees, and suspicious sneakers into a lesson in consequence
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | July 21st, 2026
Decisions are the real currency of Alaina Trivax’s “Follow the Money.” The pretend dollars matter, naturally; the reader begins with $200, earns more, loses some, borrows, spends, saves, invests, and watches a running Treasure Chest rise and fall. But the better game is not arithmetic. It is rehearsal. Trivax has built less a bright little finance primer than a child-sized consequence machine: a place where an 8-to-12-year-old can choose, misjudge, subtract, check the math, erase, and try again before adult life starts charging late fees with less pedagogical mercy.
Even in a culture saturated with money chatter – prices, warnings, advice, bills half-heard from another room – children often meet money as adult weather: everywhere, decisive, explained in fragments, and most legible when someone says no. “Follow the Money” tries to make that weather measurable. It does not ask children to worship the dollar, hustle before breakfast, or become miniature portfolio managers in sneakers. Its bargain is concrete: let the child see the cost before the bill is real. Money comes in. Money goes out. Some choices feel good now and cost later. Some dull choices protect future happiness. Some shiny bargains have teeth. Obvious? Perhaps. But many financial headaches begin in things everyone supposedly understood.
Money in Trivax’s pages is never allowed to stay misty. The reader discovers that money can be saved, spent, donated, or invested; that cash is only one form of it; that a bank account, debit card, check, app, credit card, and asset each behaves differently; that a bike may keep some value, though not all of it; that a credit card is borrowed money in a plastic disguise. The terms keep finding objects with stickers, menus, and checkout totals: cookies, backpacks, dogs, birthday parties, school supplies, snacks, video games, vacations. Trivax rarely lets vocabulary drift into adult fog. She pins it to a receipt.
Educationally, the order of lessons matters more than it first appears. The seven chapters move from money basics to earning, budgeting, saving, spending, credit and borrowing, and investing. Trivax does not open with market sparkle or compound-interest glitter. She begins with the verbs that make later subjects intelligible: earn, divide, wait, compare, borrow, repay. Only after the reader has walked dogs, planned a party, chosen school supplies, calculated tax, and met the small gremlin of fees does the guide arrive at stocks, bonds, mutual funds, certificates of deposit, inflation, volatility, crypto, and scams. In a children’s finance book, this is not housekeeping. It is moral sequencing.
The mechanism is plain: define, dramatize, calculate, add or subtract. A weaker version of this design would feel like a worksheet wearing a pirate hat. “Follow the Money” sometimes comes close, especially when the later chapters strain the backpack, but the pattern earns its keep when the Treasure Chest stops being a scoreboard and becomes memory. The total remembers the choice. The child chooses between jobs, starts a pet-care business, pays start-up costs, earns revenue, confronts expenses, and eventually calculates taxes. The pet-care business is the book’s neatest continuing device: a miniature system of labor, customers, supplies, advertising, profit, uneven income, and reinvestment, all without requiring the child to form a limited liability company before lunch.
Reality, of course, has padded corners in this workbook world. A child’s business in “Follow the Money” can grow after buying a multi-way leash and extra dog treats; a birthday-party budget can be repaired by changing the dessert. Money off the page is not so easily called to order. Still, the simplification has a purpose. It gives the reader a safe version of budgeting’s hard lesson: yes to this means no, or not yet, to that. The reader chooses among a trampoline park, mini golf, pizza, tacos, cookies, custom cupcakes, a big-city trip with pricier attractions, and a smaller-town trip with more room to roam. The lesson is not austerity, that joyless vegetable of adult advice. It is selection.
In prose, Trivax writes for pencil pressure rather than display. The sentences are short to medium, direct, and unfussy; they know where the exit is. The rhythm is teacherly without wagging a finger: here is the term, here is what it means, here is what it might look like after school on a Thursday, now you try. The diction is simple without becoming sticky-sweet. The imagery is practical rather than lush: snack menus, school-shopping lists, ATMs, fake websites. This is not prose asking to be framed. It is prose asking to be written in, preferably with an eraser nearby.
Perhaps the most valuable stylistic choice is calm. Taxes, late fees, credit scores, scams, bankruptcy, investment losses – these could easily become either alarmist or absurdly upbeat. Trivax chooses an unswooning register. She explains that borrowing has a cost, that missing a payment changes the total, that a low credit score can make later borrowing more expensive, that a too-good-to-be-true sneaker site may be exactly as reliable as a cardboard umbrella. The guide is never cruel to the child for choosing poorly. Financial education often arrives in adult life as shame with charts. “Follow the Money” makes correction part of the game.
A strong run of pages moves from spending into credit, where the guide shifts from immediate choice to delayed consequence. First the reader distinguishes wants from needs through school shopping: themed supplies or basic ones, brand-name shoes or store-brand, customized backpack or plain. Then come payment methods, change, checks, debit cards, phone apps, unit costs, discounts, sales tax, tips, donations, and scams. By the time credit appears, the reader has already practiced spending as choice rather than impulse. The credit chapter then introduces delay: buy now, pay later, and learn that later is not a magical country where bills go to sleep. A missed payment, interest charge, or late fee changes the Treasure Chest. Borrowed money has a memory.
Placed beside “Bunny Money” by Rosemary Wells, Trivax’s method becomes clearer. Wells understands that children grasp spending when they can watch money dwindle; Max and Ruby’s wallet has comic suspense. Trivax, writing for older children, extends that visible subtraction into a larger ledger of work, cost, debt, and risk. “Those Shoes” by Maribeth Boelts, meanwhile, gives wants-versus-needs the ache of social longing; the desired object carries embarrassment, belonging, envy, generosity. Trivax gives the same category a table and a total. Boelts is emotionally richer. Trivax is more ready for the kitchen table or classroom desk. “Follow the Money” belongs closer to the pencil-and-margin shelf than the story shelf, but it shares with both books a belief that children already know objects are never only objects.
Accumulation never becomes the only moral, which is one of the guide’s saving graces. Donation appears as one possible use of money, and the text distinguishes wants from needs without treating wants as wicked little freeloaders. That generosity keeps the Treasure Chest from becoming a tiny altar to optimization. Still, the running total tugs. Because nearly every choice becomes an addition or subtraction, money can begin to look like a game to win rather than a set of relationships to understand. The book mostly resists this, but the ledger is always whispering.
During the later chapters, the backpack begins to strain. Credit reports, bankruptcy, market swings, mutual funds, bonds, certificates of deposit, inflation, the Rule of 72, cryptocurrency, and investment scams are crowded machinery for a 160-page children’s guide, and Trivax handles the load with admirable steadiness. But the gap between an 8-year-old and a 12-year-old is not a crack in the sidewalk; it is a bridge. A 12-year-old with a patient adult nearby may enjoy being handed the grown-up machinery. An 8-year-old may feel as though someone has handed over a calculator and pointed toward a small mountain. The reach gives the book muscle; the weight still lands on a child’s desk.
In the investing chapter, that ambition becomes clearest. Trivax does not present investing as a secret staircase to wealth. She begins with assets, debts, and net worth, then moves through stocks, bonds, mutual funds, risk, return, diversification, volatility, inflation, and scams. The reader can choose investments and see different outcomes: safer options grow more slowly, riskier ones wobble or fall, suspicious promises cost money. The best investing lesson here is not the familiar trumpet call to start early, though that note is present. It is the quieter habit of asking what risk is hiding inside excitement.
More than many children’s money books, “Follow the Money” understands that the first problem is not ignorance alone but money’s disappearing act. Money now often appears to children as a tap, swipe, password, app, subscription, delivery, discount code, or adult mutter near the grocery shelf. Coins in a jar had their limits, but they at least had weight. Trivax’s ledger restores some of that weight. Add $50. Subtract $20. Pay tax. Lose money to a bad choice. Gain a little interest. The method is blunt in the way a ruler is blunt: no music, but clean measurement. A child cannot learn the shape of a transaction if every transaction arrives as a screen that has already vanished.
I would have liked more attention to the social heat of money. The book includes branded shoes, customized backpacks, school-shopping choices, and family budgets, but it does not linger long on comparison, embarrassment, or the feeling of watching another child buy what you cannot. Those are not side concerns in children’s financial education. They are often where money first becomes personal. “Those Shoes” by Maribeth Boelts knows this in its bones. Trivax understands it as a curriculum pressure more than as a child’s ache. The difference is not fatal, but it marks the boundary between a useful tool and a more emotionally searching book.
The same boundary reveals the cost of neatness. The Treasure Chest makes consequence visible, but it also makes money’s weather look more responsive, legible, and fair than it is. In the guide, decisions produce tidy outcomes. Outside it, the same decision can mean different things depending on family income, parental support, banking access, geography, emergencies, disability, school systems, social pressure, and luck. Trivax gestures toward cost of living and surprise events, and she includes moments of loss and scam, but the governing world remains repairable. Choose, subtract, learn, continue. Humane for a workbook; incomplete as a weather map.
Rated as a whole, “Follow the Money” lands for me at 77/100, which translates under my rubric to a Goodreads-compatible 3/5 stars: an upper-three with real instructional backbone, thoughtfully built and more designed than the average shelf-neighbor, but limited by utilitarian prose, late-chapter crowding, and the necessary tidiness of its simulation.
Others may want from the book what it is not trying to provide: narrative immersion, sentence-level surprise, a fuller account of class, or the ache of a child wanting what the family cannot afford. It offers something sturdier and less glamorous: a tool with pencil marks and a teacher’s hand on it. Not a violin. Not even a shiny new calculator. More like a ruler, a worksheet, and a patient adult who remembers not to sigh.
Parents and caregivers who freeze at the thought of explaining credit scores, interest, or scams may find the book especially welcome. It gives them not only terms, but a first sentence for a conversation many adults postpone. Children who like activities, choices, math, and visible progress may enjoy watching the total change. Children who come hungry for plot may wander off before the next total is due. That is the bargain. “Follow the Money” is not built to enchant a reluctant reader into story transport; it is built to make the next dollar less locked.
On the final page, the Treasure Chest has performed its trick: the number looks like the prize until the child realizes the habit is. The pretend dollars have risen and fallen, but what remains is a practiced pause before a purchase, a loan, a bargain, a risk, a promise. The book’s best legacy is not a child who has “won” the game, but one who has learned to ask what moves next.
Underneath the exercises is a generous belief about childhood: that children can be trusted with more machinery than adults often give them, provided the gears are labeled and nobody yells when the first calculation goes wrong. “Follow the Money” is at its most humane when it remembers that a mistake in pencil is not failure. It is a first draft of judgment.
Look closely, and the treasure is not in the chest at all. It is in the hand hovering over the page, ready to add, subtract, compare, reconsider. Trivax cannot clear the weather around money; no 160-page children’s workbook could. But she has given the reader a small barometer, a sharpened pencil, and a little room before the storm.
One quiet victory is that delay begins to feel like equipment rather than punishment. Wait before buying. Ask before clicking. Save before spending. Read the terms before celebrating the deal. These are small verbs, almost boring, until they become the difference between choice and drift.
Still, the image that remains is not treasure counted, but a hand paused over a total that can change. The coins are imaginary. The second thought is real.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Follow the Money: A Fun Financial Literacy Game for Kids by Alaina Trivax (August 2026) [reading in July]
160-page Paperback
ARC courtesy of Zeitgeist, Z Kids, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Genre: Business, Leadership, Finance, Children's Nonfiction
Rating as a movie: Y-7 Target Audience Ages 8-12
Featuring: Disclaimer - Not Intended as Professional Services, Informational Content Only; Introduction, Money Matters, Donations, Earning Money, Starting A Business, Taxes, Hands-On Scenario Activities, Interactive Games, Budgeting, Saving, Spending, Banking, Credit & Borrowing, Investing, Treasure Chest, Math, Making Choices, Practical Skills, Calculating Tips, Avoiding Scams, Differentiating Assets From Debts, Kid-Led Decisions, Parent-Friendly, Getting Started as an Investor, Answer Key, Glossary, Resources, Index, Letter from Author
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟💵🐕🦺🏦💳
My thoughts: Follow the Money looks exactly like the type of financial literacy books I bought my children when they were younger, and I was expecting it to cover the basics—you know: spend, save, invest, and so on. Written by a certified teacher and financial writer, I was really excited when they talked about donations right from the start in Chapter 1: Money Matters. I was thinking this is a basic financial literacy book for elementary school children, but right out of the gate with Chapter 2: Earning Money, things change.
In Chapter 2, they discussed earning and income, and then we see our first math problem when they start calculating hourly rates versus hours worked. The next thing I know, we have our first activity, which is actually getting a job. They compare two jobs—task versus hourly rate—and then they set it up to calculate which job is a better fit. There isn't really a right or wrong answer; it's literally your choice. These activities quickly became a highlight for me. There was an activity for starting a business, and it broke it down so well that some grown-ups might want to take notes (I guess that's why it's labeled parent-friendly as well as not intended as professional services!), but I could totally see children getting into this. This is something my kids did on a larger scale in their math class, but here it is so simplified, informative, and educational. There's also a secondary Treasure Chest activity that happens throughout the entire book where you get $200 and a pen and paper, and calculate the results of all your activity choices to see how much money you end up with at the end of the book.
When they got to filing a tax return (4th Activity, Chapter 2) is when I really got excited, because that's one of the things so many adults complain about not being taught in school. My son had to do payroll taxes as part of his fifth-grade curriculum in Texas, so taxes aren't foreign to my children, but filing a tax return is something I don't think I've ever seen in a children's book, so I was very excited about it. Then, of course, they did things like planning a party, which is something my kids did in real life but I don't think I've ever seen in a book. Then came vacations, and that's when I knew this was a five-star read. They talk about budgeting for a vacation and go through two different options—the big city versus a smaller town—and let the reader choose which vacation they would prefer based on how much money they want to spend out of their budget. They even do activities for emergency funds and discuss sinking funds as short-term and long-term savings goals. This book was fantastic. It goes into detail about banking types and accounts, and even shows you how to write a check—a skill that my kids have perfected but a lot of young adults don't know about. There's even a moment on virtual payments. Dave won't approve, but they go into detail about credit cards and loans; although they give you all the information for how a credit score works, this book does not make it seem like you can't live without one. They even touch on bankruptcy, which, according to this book, typically happens when you borrow too much and you can't pay it back.
I have to say, this book is far superior to the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Jr. picture books. I'm definitely adding it to my Christmas gift list, as one or more of my little cousins will be reading this for Christmas, and I'm already planning a giveaway for my budgeting group. This book is probably one of the best financial books I've read in years. Notice I didn't say "children's financial book"—I mean this book is great for grown-ups who have a hard time grasping financial concepts and really want them simplified so they can just do the steps.
Recommend to others: Absolutely! I don't usually say this, but if you can only get your child one financial literacy book, it should be this one.
160-page Paperback
ARC courtesy of Zeitgeist, Z Kids, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Genre: Business, Leadership, Finance, Children's Nonfiction
Rating as a movie: Y-7 Target Audience Ages 8-12
Featuring: Disclaimer - Not Intended as Professional Services, Informational Content Only; Introduction, Money Matters, Donations, Earning Money, Starting A Business, Taxes, Hands-On Scenario Activities, Interactive Games, Budgeting, Saving, Spending, Banking, Credit & Borrowing, Investing, Treasure Chest, Math, Making Choices, Practical Skills, Calculating Tips, Avoiding Scams, Differentiating Assets From Debts, Kid-Led Decisions, Parent-Friendly, Getting Started as an Investor, Answer Key, Glossary, Resources, Index, Letter from Author
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟💵🐕🦺🏦💳
My thoughts: Follow the Money looks exactly like the type of financial literacy books I bought my children when they were younger, and I was expecting it to cover the basics—you know: spend, save, invest, and so on. Written by a certified teacher and financial writer, I was really excited when they talked about donations right from the start in Chapter 1: Money Matters. I was thinking this is a basic financial literacy book for elementary school children, but right out of the gate with Chapter 2: Earning Money, things change.
In Chapter 2, they discussed earning and income, and then we see our first math problem when they start calculating hourly rates versus hours worked. The next thing I know, we have our first activity, which is actually getting a job. They compare two jobs—task versus hourly rate—and then they set it up to calculate which job is a better fit. There isn't really a right or wrong answer; it's literally your choice. These activities quickly became a highlight for me. There was an activity for starting a business, and it broke it down so well that some grown-ups might want to take notes (I guess that's why it's labeled parent-friendly as well as not intended as professional services!), but I could totally see children getting into this. This is something my kids did on a larger scale in their math class, but here it is so simplified, informative, and educational. There's also a secondary Treasure Chest activity that happens throughout the entire book where you get $200 and a pen and paper, and calculate the results of all your activity choices to see how much money you end up with at the end of the book.
When they got to filing a tax return (4th Activity, Chapter 2) is when I really got excited, because that's one of the things so many adults complain about not being taught in school. My son had to do payroll taxes as part of his fifth-grade curriculum in Texas, so taxes aren't foreign to my children, but filing a tax return is something I don't think I've ever seen in a children's book, so I was very excited about it. Then, of course, they did things like planning a party, which is something my kids did in real life but I don't think I've ever seen in a book. Then came vacations, and that's when I knew this was a five-star read. They talk about budgeting for a vacation and go through two different options—the big city versus a smaller town—and let the reader choose which vacation they would prefer based on how much money they want to spend out of their budget. They even do activities for emergency funds and discuss sinking funds as short-term and long-term savings goals. This book was fantastic. It goes into detail about banking types and accounts, and even shows you how to write a check—a skill that my kids have perfected but a lot of young adults don't know about. There's even a moment on virtual payments. Dave won't approve, but they go into detail about credit cards and loans; although they give you all the information for how a credit score works, this book does not make it seem like you can't live without one. They even touch on bankruptcy, which, according to this book, typically happens when you borrow too much and you can't pay it back.
I have to say, this book is far superior to the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Jr. picture books. I'm definitely adding it to my Christmas gift list, as one or more of my little cousins will be reading this for Christmas, and I'm already planning a giveaway for my budgeting group. This book is probably one of the best financial books I've read in years. Notice I didn't say "children's financial book"—I mean this book is great for grown-ups who have a hard time grasping financial concepts and really want them simplified so they can just do the steps.
Recommend to others: Absolutely! I don't usually say this, but if you can only get your child one financial literacy book, it should be this one.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
ARC Review :
A lot of people complain that schools never teach them any real life skills and practical knowledge required for sane adulting. If you are one of these people, this book is for you (and/or your kids).
It uses kid-friendly activities (like walking neighbourhood dogs) to explain fundamental financial & budgeting concepts.
The broader financial concepts include costs, balances, discounts, sales taxes, simple interest, credit, tips, donations, avoiding scams and even writing cheques. Personal finance and budgeting concepts cover saving, investing, keeping emergency funds, banks vs. credit unions, needs vs. wants, budgeting & planning.
I am honestly impressed by how the author simplifies the world of finance without taking away from its core essence. It does justice to both the kid's (happy-go-lucky) everyday perspective and the rich, conceptual, & no-nonsense reality of the finance domain.
The chapters & exercises are well structured, alternating between story/explanation and quick math calculations showing the impact of earnings, spending, & even the occurrence of random events (like the dog leash snapping and requiring replacement). I like how accurate, realistic and yet accessible the content is!
Some activities also include figuring out the best option by mathematically calculating or personally ranking the cost-benefits of different offerings available. I love this so much because it demystifies the much scary field of personal finance and empowers the reader by showing them the options they have available to choose from.
This beautifully written book is a must-have book for community libraries, parents who home school their kids, and teachers who want to teach core concepts of personal finance to middle & high school students through classroom activities.
I love this book because it gives the reader peace of mind and enough theoritical foundation from where you can make financially sound decisions (and expand on your learning later on). Reading this book gave me more relief than anything I have formally learnt about finance until now. The world of finance is obviously vast and un-compressible in a 160 page book for kids. But this book is a brilliant starting point. Highly recommended.
I would like to thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free digital review copy of this book. All views are my own.
A lot of people complain that schools never teach them any real life skills and practical knowledge required for sane adulting. If you are one of these people, this book is for you (and/or your kids).
It uses kid-friendly activities (like walking neighbourhood dogs) to explain fundamental financial & budgeting concepts.
The broader financial concepts include costs, balances, discounts, sales taxes, simple interest, credit, tips, donations, avoiding scams and even writing cheques. Personal finance and budgeting concepts cover saving, investing, keeping emergency funds, banks vs. credit unions, needs vs. wants, budgeting & planning.
I am honestly impressed by how the author simplifies the world of finance without taking away from its core essence. It does justice to both the kid's (happy-go-lucky) everyday perspective and the rich, conceptual, & no-nonsense reality of the finance domain.
The chapters & exercises are well structured, alternating between story/explanation and quick math calculations showing the impact of earnings, spending, & even the occurrence of random events (like the dog leash snapping and requiring replacement). I like how accurate, realistic and yet accessible the content is!
Some activities also include figuring out the best option by mathematically calculating or personally ranking the cost-benefits of different offerings available. I love this so much because it demystifies the much scary field of personal finance and empowers the reader by showing them the options they have available to choose from.
This beautifully written book is a must-have book for community libraries, parents who home school their kids, and teachers who want to teach core concepts of personal finance to middle & high school students through classroom activities.
I love this book because it gives the reader peace of mind and enough theoritical foundation from where you can make financially sound decisions (and expand on your learning later on). Reading this book gave me more relief than anything I have formally learnt about finance until now. The world of finance is obviously vast and un-compressible in a 160 page book for kids. But this book is a brilliant starting point. Highly recommended.
I would like to thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free digital review copy of this book. All views are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Follow the Money should be required reading in all schools as it thoroughly teaches financial literacy in an easy to understand, succinct, yet fun format. Most of America misunderstands how finances work and would benefit from reading this book! I loved how each chapter built upon the last, establishing a firm foundation of comprehension and application while continuing to increase topical and mathematical complication.
Alaina Trivax teaches that our desires and the ability to control them (or not) absolutely determines our future financial stability and ease. That there are basic needs everyone must pay to survive, but most of our financial choices are based on our wants. You need to eat, but will you spend $48 on sushi or $0.60 on yogurt? Will you splurge every chance you get or save every chance? This book begins to show kids that their financial choices (even carelessness when losing or breaking belongings) directly effects their wallet. There are multiple sections throughout the book where readers choose which option they prefer and provided space to write down why they chose that option. This freedom is an excellent exercise in rationing and logic that helps build financial strategy and prevent impulse buys.
I loved that Trivax subtly encourages kids to work hard every single week. Follow the Money teaches unit costs, interest, calculating sales, tipping, avoiding scams, credit cards, loans, investments, inflation, even filing out a check correctly- a lost art in the era of app transfers! At the back of the book there are sections for the glossary, index, and further reading via references used.
I plan on going through this book with my kids every year using a separate, dated sheet of paper to track how their logic and desires change overtime. One day they will "graduate" from it, able to plan their next financial steps without using the tips and help inside the book!
Thank you to Zeitgeist and NetGalley for this ARC!
Alaina Trivax teaches that our desires and the ability to control them (or not) absolutely determines our future financial stability and ease. That there are basic needs everyone must pay to survive, but most of our financial choices are based on our wants. You need to eat, but will you spend $48 on sushi or $0.60 on yogurt? Will you splurge every chance you get or save every chance? This book begins to show kids that their financial choices (even carelessness when losing or breaking belongings) directly effects their wallet. There are multiple sections throughout the book where readers choose which option they prefer and provided space to write down why they chose that option. This freedom is an excellent exercise in rationing and logic that helps build financial strategy and prevent impulse buys.
I loved that Trivax subtly encourages kids to work hard every single week. Follow the Money teaches unit costs, interest, calculating sales, tipping, avoiding scams, credit cards, loans, investments, inflation, even filing out a check correctly- a lost art in the era of app transfers! At the back of the book there are sections for the glossary, index, and further reading via references used.
I plan on going through this book with my kids every year using a separate, dated sheet of paper to track how their logic and desires change overtime. One day they will "graduate" from it, able to plan their next financial steps without using the tips and help inside the book!
Thank you to Zeitgeist and NetGalley for this ARC!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was such a fun and genuinely helpful way to introduce financial literacy to kids, and it absolutely feels like a 5-star read to me.
I love how interactive it is, because it does not just talk about money in a broad way, it actually walks readers through real life concepts like earning, taxes, budgeting, saving, credit, and investing in a way that feels clear and manageable.
The workbook style format makes it really engaging, and I thought the activities were a great way to help kids connect the lessons to everyday life instead of just memorizing terms. I also really appreciated how much is covered here, including topics that a lot of adults wish they had learned earlier.
This would be such a useful resource for kids, homeschool families, classrooms, and even adults who want a simple starting point for understanding personal finance. I even found myself learning a few things along the way.
www.pinkstinx.blogspot.com
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.
I love how interactive it is, because it does not just talk about money in a broad way, it actually walks readers through real life concepts like earning, taxes, budgeting, saving, credit, and investing in a way that feels clear and manageable.
The workbook style format makes it really engaging, and I thought the activities were a great way to help kids connect the lessons to everyday life instead of just memorizing terms. I also really appreciated how much is covered here, including topics that a lot of adults wish they had learned earlier.
This would be such a useful resource for kids, homeschool families, classrooms, and even adults who want a simple starting point for understanding personal finance. I even found myself learning a few things along the way.
www.pinkstinx.blogspot.com
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I always appreciate books that make learning feel like play, and Follow the Money does exactly that. Instead of simply defining financial terms, it turns budgeting, saving, spending, and earning into an interactive game that encourages kids to think through their choices. I especially liked the "choose your path" style of the activities because they invite children to see how different financial decisions can lead to different outcomes instead of presenting one "correct" answer.
As a homeschool mom, I'm always looking for resources that spark conversation as much as they teach, and this one fits that role well. Money can feel like an intimidating topic, but the game keeps it engaging without talking down to kids. I could easily see families playing through different scenarios together and comparing the choices they made. It's a creative way to introduce financial literacy while keeping the experience fun. My sincere thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free advance review copy.
As a homeschool mom, I'm always looking for resources that spark conversation as much as they teach, and this one fits that role well. Money can feel like an intimidating topic, but the game keeps it engaging without talking down to kids. I could easily see families playing through different scenarios together and comparing the choices they made. It's a creative way to introduce financial literacy while keeping the experience fun. My sincere thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free advance review copy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
What a sweet treat this was! This is exactly the book I’ve been looking for to teach my kids about money. Often times, it’s easy for the kids to say ”I want this” or “I want that” or “I’m going to tell grandpa to buy me this,” but they don’t realize that everything costs money. They’re also always asking their grandparents for money and it’s easy for them to spend it all the following day at the store. I’ve tried talking to them about what money is and how one must do something to get cash in return, but all to no avail.
Well, this book provides me with exactly what I need to teach my young kids all about how they can earn money and the importance of Saving Up! This is also a great resource for older kids to learn about credit cards and banks overall.
Thank you Alaina Trivax, Zeitgeist, & NetGalley for this eARC.
Well, this book provides me with exactly what I need to teach my young kids all about how they can earn money and the importance of Saving Up! This is also a great resource for older kids to learn about credit cards and banks overall.
Thank you Alaina Trivax, Zeitgeist, & NetGalley for this eARC.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This book is a great way for children ages 8-12 to learn about money! To be honest, I wish that I had learned some of these essential skills when I was that age instead of having to figure them out as an adult. The book is written as a workbook-style game, with activities to learn things such as how to create a budget, calculate taxes, find the best price, and start an emergency fund. It is written with easy-to-understand language and with examples that are relatable to kids, like having a pet-care business, buying cookies at the store, and shopping for school supplies. Throughout the book, readers keep track of the money they earn and spend from their treasure chest to find out how much money they’re left with at the end. I love this book — it is the perfect addition to a financial literacy homeschool curriculum or as a supplement for anyone not learning this in school!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This interactive book is designed to teach financial literacy to children ages 8 to 12.
I home educate my eldest, and financial literacy was on my list of topics to work on next term. I was really impressed with this book as it clearly presents all of the core concepts, including budgeting, investing, income, expenses, etc. What makes it perfect for my purposes is the different activities that are included, such as selecting a job and calculating your income, calculating your tax return, planning a holiday, and choosing the type of bank and bank account. All of these topics are presented very clearly and in a way that is very engaging for children (for example, one of the activities has them setting up a dog walking side business). I'm definitely going to be using this in my curriculum!
A recommended read for educators looking to introduce financial literacy to their preteens.
Thank you to NetGalley and Zeitgeist for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I home educate my eldest, and financial literacy was on my list of topics to work on next term. I was really impressed with this book as it clearly presents all of the core concepts, including budgeting, investing, income, expenses, etc. What makes it perfect for my purposes is the different activities that are included, such as selecting a job and calculating your income, calculating your tax return, planning a holiday, and choosing the type of bank and bank account. All of these topics are presented very clearly and in a way that is very engaging for children (for example, one of the activities has them setting up a dog walking side business). I'm definitely going to be using this in my curriculum!
A recommended read for educators looking to introduce financial literacy to their preteens.
Thank you to NetGalley and Zeitgeist for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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