LitPick Review
Mabel has a bursting piggy bank and she knows she has to protect it so no one finds it. So, she decides to hide it in her favorite hide-and-seek spot which is under her bed. After finishing her daily chores, she takes Piggy out from under the bed so she can put her coins in it. Piggy is filled to the brim and no more coins can be stuffed inside. Mabel realizes she’s a millionaire right now and thinks of all sorts of fun things she can buy with all this money. After talking with her mother, they decide together that opening a savings account would be the best option for her because they will give her interest as long as she doesn’t withdraw any money from the account. They head to the bank together and meet Ruby, a banking associate, who helps Mabel open a Sally the Sheep Savings Account. Ruby thinks Mabel is extremely smart for investing her money so she decides to give her a nickname. Her nickname is MoneyWise Mabel and she loves it! What does MoneyWise Mabel finally decide to do with her money?
Opinion:
I found this book to be educational, along with being witty and fun. Children will love getting to know Mabel because she’s fun to be around and entertaining because she came up with all these unique ideas on how she wanted to spend her money. Every child can relate to wanting to spend their allowance, but Mabel can expertly convince children that saving it for something truly special is the right way to think about money. Parents, grandparents, guardians, and teachers can use MoneyWise Mabel’s story as the perfect backdrop in teaching children that saving is a fun thing to do too.
Ms. Boisvert created her characters to be people you wouldn’t mind being friends with, from Mabel, an ordinary child, to even Ruby, the bank person. The characters were extremely believable that you feel they were real people you can relate to, especially young readers learning from Mabel that it’s wise to invest into a savings account. These characters will carry the readers along and take them on a fun journey to see exactly what Mabel decided to ultimately do with her savings.
One thing that stood out to me throughout this children’s book was that the author even put a silly twist on the name of the savings account: “Sally the Sheep Savings.” Children will be giggling their way through these pages as I found myself doing, and I’m an adult who thoroughly enjoyed reading along to see what Mabel was going to do next. I loved that Ruby even gave Mabel her nickname of MoneyWise Mabel. I feel that this nickname will stick in children’s minds that you don’t always have to spend money to have fun. Sometimes just accumulating money for a bigger priced item is fun too because you look forward to how you’ll use that more expensive item that you saved up for. I feel children will want to be considered “MoneyWise” just like Mabel.
The illustrations provided by Val Lawton were fun to look at and pulled readers deeper into Mabel’s story as they turned each page. They were the perfect accompaniment to visually enhance Mabel telling her story to her readers. There were plenty of illustrations throughout the book and they were extremely colorful, enticing the readers to flip the pages to see what Mabel would do next.
Overall, MoneyWise Mabel’s Bursting Bank is one book that adults will love to read to the children in their lives because it promotes that saving money is a smart thing to do. Ms. Boisvert has worked in the financial industry for over fifteen years, and she is the perfect person to teach children at a young age to be responsible with their money. This book comes highly recommended!
