Monster Money

by Grace Maccarone, Marilyn Burns, Marge Hartelius (Illustrator)

The author-illustrator team behind Monster Math, an IRA-CBC Children's Choice, unleashes their lovable monsters on the local pet store, where each one must decide how to use their money to buy the creature they want. Original.

Genres: Mathematics, Money, Monsters, Childrens, Education

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

Grace Maccarone is an American children’s book editor and author, notably of Miss Lina’s Ballerinas, illustrated by Christine Davenier, and its sequel Miss Lina’s Ballerinas and the Prince. She has also worked as an editor at Scholastic, Wireless Generation, and currently Holiday House.

Reviews

[Ashley B.]

This book is showing the different ways to make ten cents. 10 pennies, 5 pennies and a nickel, two nickels, and a dime. There is a lot of repetition, so the reader would be able to pick up on some of the vocabulary. The reader will learn all the combinations of making 10 cents. The fact the characters are buying pets is also a plus. Their are lots of animals and it's a good thing they are all 10 cents. Fun book to read and read aloud.

[Randie D. Camp, M.S.]

Maccarone, Grace. (1998). Monster Money. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.

Annotation: For children in preschool to first grade. Marge Hartelius, who uses bright colors and facial expressions to enhance the interaction between the “money monsters” and the reader, illustrate this book. The monsters point to things that help to guide the reader to the next page, as well as display buying and selling to help the reader to learn early math concepts. Pictures of pennies, nickels, and dimes are used to show different ways to count to ten. There are also actual mathematical numbers on signs to represent numbers in different forms. There is very little text, to emphasize the counting of the coins. Additionally, there are learning games at the end of the book to build more knowledge.

Personal Reaction: I like this book; I think that it makes math more fun and interesting for young children. This book would be very beneficial for students who are struggling with math and counting money.

[Jodi Young]

This would be great for a math lesson involving money and purchasing items. For the classroom, students can make their own pet store, or candy store, and practice buying from each other using different ways to add up.

[Theresa]

a math addon curricular book that speaks of money and equlance of change for 10 cents

[Jill]

AR 1.2

[Airiel Owens]

This is book is for learning to count money and it also has rhyming!

[Richelle]

Good book to show different ways to make ten cents.

[Jessika Brokel]

This book is about monsters who go to the store to buy presents. When they get to the store they learn about money and how much each item is and how to budget their money to make sure they have enough to buy what they want. This book teaches children about money, what money looks like, how you can spend money, and how to budget their money.