Battle of the Chores: Junior Discovers Debt

Life Lessons with Junior

by Dave Ramsey, Marshall Ramsey (Illustrator)

In BATTLE OF THE CHORES, Junior learns that being in debt to someone is NOT FUN! This story teaches children the value of working for money and the disadvantages of borrowing money. It will introduce to them that the borrower is servant to the lender.

Genres: Childrens, Parenting, Kids, Finance

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2005

About the author

Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He’s a #1 National bestselling author and host of The Ramsey Show, heard by more than 18 million listeners each week. Dave’s eight national bestselling books include The Total Money Makeover, Baby Steps Millionaires, and EntreLeadership. Since 1992, Dave has helped people take control of their money, build wealth, and enhance their lives. He also serves as CEO of Ramsey Solutions.

Reviews

[Kristi Barragán · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just started reading these books to my son. This was our first one. I have an issue with a couple situations in the book. I had to stop two or three times to talk to him about why I think it was wrong. People may think I'm over reacting but I thought I would at least list the things I saw wrong with the book.

The first issue I have is when the mother asked them to go clean their rooms. The little boy did all his work and the little girl started but stopped to play with her doll. The mother stopped in and asked her about it, but never punished her for not finishing her chores, honestly, she didn't even address it. Towards the end of the week, the little boy didn't finish his chores one night, but said he would do them in the morning. It appears the next time was pay day and totaling of chores completed. At this point we see the mom say to the little girl that she did all her chores so she gets her $5 and the little boy didn't so he gets $2. Honestly I felt it placed a bit of favoritism on the daughter since she was allowed to play without punishment or even addressing that she didn't finish, yet retained her full payment.

I didn't care for how the mother (parents) seem absent from their lives and decision making. These appear to be very young children; I feel like the parents should be guiding them a little more. When they got to the store the mother went to get the groceries while the kids went to the toy/dvd section. Then later the mother comes and asks if they're ready. I felt it was a lack of supervision going on.

Also when the mother finally found out the situation she said "we don't loan money in this family." Couldn't they have worded it a little better? Why not just start out with the reason we don't "loaning money changes relationship, it's better to give instead of expecting it back." The the way it sounded to me was like they should have said, "we don't loan money in this family, because we're a bunch of jerks!" hehe :)

Yes I'm aware it's "just a book." But it may give some children the wrong impression. All in all it's a good lesson and it actually changed my mind about not giving money to my kids for doing household chores. We'll now be implementing a little money with the chores every week so they can fully know how to take care of their finances

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is probably my favorite of the Junior series. We've read it several times so far, but this time around I think the kids got more out of it than the last time. I do recommend for young readers to learn about debt in simple terms for them to understand. Not so they can make use of it, but more so they can understand the negative aspects of being in debt.

[Jodi]

I read this series to my kids when they were younger and while I appreciate the general lessons, I didn't see Ramsey's spiritualization of wealth hoarding so clearly at the time.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this book for our girls online, since it was not available at our local library. We've read most of the books in the Life Lessons With Junior series and I think they are good reinforcements for the financial and moral lessons we are trying to teach our girls.

Overall, this was an entertaining story. I'm not sure how realistic it is, but it certainly has a good message. We use allowances as a teaching tool in our family as well, but our philosophy is slightly different. Still, our girls could appreciate the concept of working to earn more money.

The illustrations are colorful and typical for the series. We enjoyed reading this book together and now our daughter wants to donate this book to the library. Yay!

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 3 out of 5]

My love of reading started when i was young, and it gives me immense pleasure to provide books to Spread the Word Nevada, an organization that passes them on to children in the community. They are a terrific organization supporting an important cause. If your local I encourage you to check them out. For those living further a field, look in your own community, their may already be a similar program in place. And if not, you can always help start one.

http://spreadthewordnevada.org/

Myself, I go out on the weekends and
shop thrift store and bulk book lots to rescue books and donate them. Sometimes I'll find a book I remember reading when I was young and will read it again before passing it on.

I don't rate these books using my normal scale, instead I give most of them three stars. This isn't a Criticism of the book, simply my way of rating them as good for children.

[Kim Holdiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used this for the kids class we held while the grown ups went through FPU. They loved it!

[Lauren Perotto · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit cheesy, but gets the point across.