Children's Book Review: *Pretty Penny Sets up Shop* by Devon Kinch

• Pretty Penny Sets up Shop by Devon Kinch
• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (December 28, 2010)
• ISBN-13: 978-0375867354

Back-of-the-book blurb: Pretty Penny has lots of big ideas. For instance, she wants to throw a birthday party for her grandmother, Bunny, but there is only one problem—she doesn’t have any money! What’s a creative, industrious girl to do? When Penny notices that Bunny’s attic is cluttered with old things that still have value, Penny has an idea—create a “Small Mall!” Penny will have to clean up and set up shop in the attic to sell the old items to earn the money for Bunny’s surprise celebration.

She Is Too Fond of Books’ review: Pretty Penny is a young girl of an unstated age, probably between 6 and 10 years old.  Her age may be undetermined, but she is very determined!  When Penny wants to buy her grandma Bunny a birthday gift, she thinks, and thinks, and thinks … until a really big idea comes to her – causing her index finger to point straight into the air with a little “I’ve got it!” dance.

Penny’s idea is to organize all the forgotten treasures in Bunny’s attic and create an indoor tag sale for the neighbors.  With Bunny’s blessing, Penny sets up the Small Mall; she cleans, sorts, displays and prices all the items – from teddy bears and bicycles to costume jewelry and books.  There’s “even an antique telephone!”, which I recognized as a wall-mounted rotary dial phone (ouch!).

This entreprenuer earns enough money to plan a birthday surprise for Bunny, inviting all the neighbors in to share cupcakes purchased at the bakery:

“A party for me?” Bunny asks with a smile. “Now, whose big idea was this?”

It was Pretty Penny’s idea, of course!  I’m happy to know we’ll see more of her, as Penny is introduced in marketing material as “the industrious star of a new series by debut author-illustrator Devon Kinch.”

We (my 6- and 8-year-old book testers and I) loved the character!  Penny is smart, decisive, not afraid to take risks.  She’s stylish – reminds me a bit of a fun ’80s rocker with her black dress and boots and her fuchsia leggings and purse!  In addition to Penny, Bunny, and the neighbors, we meet two animals, Penny’s pet Iggy the Pig (yes, he looks like a piggy bank), and Bo the cat.  The story is set for the most part in Bunny’s house – a yellow brownstone (OK, a yellow building) which houses Bunny, three apartments, and that glorious attic.

The book purports to teach about money and the financial basics of earning, saving, and spending.  On the page where Penny counts the earnings of Small Mall (Ka-ching!), Kinch has drawn a bird’s-eye view of the desk, and my daughter was able to add the many values ($5 bill, $1 bill, $1 coin, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies) to total the $10 Penny earned.  What we couldn’t reconcile was how she earned the $10 — the purchases detailed in the story totalled only $8.50.  My daughter was frustrated that there was an inconsistency, or a gap.  We looked at the various items in the attic and came up with a few combinations that would have accounted for the missing $1.50.  Maybe this was the intent (to make a game of it), but I only wish the question had been asked in the text, instead of me scrambling.  This is one small hitch in an otherwise wonderful book — maybe it wouldn’t bother others the way it got to my Little Miss Math!

There are some fantastic companion resources online at Pretty Penny. Readers can download a coloring book, make a DIY DJ turntable (see, I knew she was a rocker!), or print a Small Mall Starter Kit – complete with price tags, receipts, and signs.  I would have been all over this at age 8 (I was a child of the “Ronald McDonald Backyard Carnival for MDA.”  Anyone else remember those kits with ideas for games, tickets to cut out, etc.?).

Overall, we really like the characters and money concepts introduced in Pretty Penny Sets up Shop; we’re looking forward to seeing what Pretty Penny is thinking when her next big idea strikes!