I received this book at no cost from the publisher
KidVenture: Twelve Weeks To Midnight Blue by Steve SearfossFormat: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Chance Sterling launches a pool cleaning business over the summer. Join Chance as he looks for new customers, discovers how much to charge them, takes on a business partner, recruits an employee, deals with difficult clients, and figures out how to make a profit. He has twelve weeks to reach his goal. Will he make it? Only if he takes some chances.
KidVenture stories are business adventures where kids figure out how to market their company, understand risk, and negotiate. Each chapter ends with a challenge, including business decisions, ethical dilemmas and interpersonal conflict for young readers to wrestle with. As the story progresses, the characters track revenue, costs, profit margin, and other key metrics which are explained in simple, fun ways that tie into the story.
REVIEW
This is a really wonderful story about Chance who really wants a new bicycle and needs the money to buy it himself. With his dad’s help, he starts a pool cleaning business and learns what it takes to run a successful endeavor. I love that the story explains each step he needs to take in order to make money. He has to budget his expenses along with what he charges to make sure he is profitable. This is something not a lot of books cover for middle graders. It is so important to teach children the value of money and what it takes to earn and keep it.
About the Author
Steve Searfoss: I wrote my first KidVenture book after years of making up stories to teach my kids about business and economics. Whenever they’d ask how something works or why things were a certain way, I would say, “Let’s pretend you have a business that sells…” and off we’d go. What would start as a simple hypothetical to explain a concept would become an adventure spanning several days as my kids would come back with new questions which would spawn more plot twists. Rather than give them quick answers, I tried to create cliffhangers to get them to really think through an idea and make the experience as interactive as possible.
I try to bring that same spirit of fun, curiosity and challenge to each KidVenture book. That’s why every chapter ends with a dilemma and a set of questions. KidVenture books are fun for kids to read alone, and even more fun to read together and discuss. There are plenty of books where kids learn about being doctors and astronauts and firefighters. There are hardly any where they learn what it’s like to run small business. KidVenture is different. The companies the kids start are modest and simple, but the themes are serious and important.
I’m an entrepreneur who has started a half dozen or so businesses and have had my share of failures. My dad was an entrepreneur and as a kid I used to love asking him about his business and learning the ins and outs of what to do and not do. Mistakes make the best stories — and the best lessons. I wanted to write a business book that was realistic, where you get to see the characters stumble and wander and reset, the way entrepreneurs do in real life. Unlike most books and movies where business is portrayed as easy, where all you need is one good idea and the desire to be successful, the characters in KidVenture find that every day brings new problems to solve.
One winner will receive a print copy of KidVenture: Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue and a $15 Amazon gift card (US, UK, Canada only)
Ends March 2, 2022
My stepdaughter has no concept on business and money, and I would love this book to teach her.. It sounds fun and would keep her riveted.
This book sounds interesting
Sounds like an interesting book.
Sounds like a good book.
When I was a Kid, I wanted to be teacher! Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue is a great book for kids, good luck with your book and the tour, Steve! Thanks for sharing it with me and have an awesome week!
I wanted to be a teacher or a marine biologist when I was younger.
I wanted to be a teacher when I was little
I would so love to read this one this spring sounds super good
I wanted to be a photographer, until I was told that I was terrible at it.
cute cover
My grandson would love this book.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. This sounds like an excellent book to share with my grandchildren. Thank you for posting
What a great idea for a book.Kids are always cooking up ideas for making money or having fun and adventure. We can’t always give them the advice they need, plus they don’t always listen to parents – what do we know? This is written in a way to engage them, teach them, and entertain them. They will learn without feeling like they are being preached to by an adult.
Wanted to be a nurse
Wanted to be a teacher