Rebecca Vickers

In the book, 101 Ways to be Smart About Money, author, Rebecca Vickers takes a fairly simple journalistic approach to teach young readers about managing finances. She uses interviews with other teens and professionals in finance, well-known retail companies and case studies. The information they share includes facts about costs for popular items and services, statistics for credit card usage and debt and so much more. Vickers also cites laws about money including child labor and employment laws, suggesting minors look up the laws in their home states before taking a job.

The style of writing is informal and conversational, similar to that of a blogger or magazine feature writer. There are anecdotes from teens about their money situations and jobs, as well as stories from adults sharing their past experiences. For example, in one of the “True Story” sections, Richard Branson is profiled about selling records from the tunk of his car as a teenager. “Over 40 years later, he is now a billionaire” after eventually opening stores across London.

In ‘101 Ways,’ the author actually numbers 101 ways over 47 pages. The cover is formatted as a magazine cover with questions that correlate to the topics on the inside of the text plastered up front to grab readers’ attention. There are real photos, staged and used from other resources as well as highlighted quotes inside of thought bubbles. One of the most thought-provoking quotes is “a fool and his money are soon parted (pg.44).

The book is filled from cover to cover with diagrams, charts and graphs and ends with a glossary of words that were printed in bold throughout the book. This text is sure teach a valuable lesson to young students in a fun and engaging way. One thing that would have made it even better would be for the author to include practice scenarios that require the readers to do some quick arithmetic. After all, practice makes perfect.… (altro)