It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.Ī long-running series reaches its closing chapters. Daymond is Black most of the cast are people of color. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work! Though the lessons weigh more heavily than in The One and Only Ivan, a potential disappointment to its fans, the story is nevertheless a somberly affecting one

We stay as long as we’re needed.” The cat’s voice, with its adult tone, is the conduit for the novel’s lessons: “You need to tell the truth, my friend….To the person who matters most of all.” Crenshaw tells Jackson that “Imaginary friends don’t come of their own volition.

The structure allows readers access to the slow buildup of Jackson’s panic and his need for a friend and stability in his life. Jackson’s first-person narrative moves from the present day, when he wishes that his parents understood that he’s old enough to hear the truth about the family’s finances, to the first time they were homeless and back to the present. When Crenshaw shows up on a surfboard, Jackson, an aspiring scientist who likes facts, wonders whether Crenshaw is real or a figment of his imagination. Now they’re facing eviction again, and Jackson’s afraid that he won’t be going to school next year with his friend Marisol. A giant cat named Crenshaw first appeared after Jackson finished first grade, when his parents moved the family into their minivan for several months.

Hunger is a constant for soon-to-be fifth-grader Jackson and his family, and the accompanying dizziness may be why his imaginary friend is back. Applegate tackles homelessness in her first novel since 2013 Newbery winner The One and Only Ivan.

Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate