Review: Trouble at the Toy Store

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Trouble at the Toy Store 

By Art Rainer (B&H Kids)

Talking to children about managing money can be challenging, but parents, teachers and church leaders agree on its importance in achieving healthy financial habits. Art Rainer created the Secret Slide Money Club books for children in early grades to address the issue. The final title in the series, Trouble at the Toy Store, builds on lessons from The Great Lemonade Stand Standoff and The Mad Cash Dash. 

As the story unfolds, Brody, Sophia and Jake await the final challenge to join Secret Slide Money Club as agents who rescue people from greedy Albatross. If they fail, they become Albies who smell like “dirty, wet socks.” The friends lose at dodgeball for the first time ever when they stop and sniff stench. Then Marcus shows them a stinky Albie ad for expensive video games.

Agent G.B. pings the three to enter the Secret Slide Money Club by pushing GIVE-SAVE-LIVE buttons in order. He shows a screen of children in Terry’s Toy Store. Agent G.B. explains Proverbs 21:20, “The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.” He challenges them to stop Albatross with an oven mitt and the charge, “Make a spending plan. … No impulse buying.”

As they enter the toy shop, paper airplane ads fly everywhere, and anyone struck becomes an Albie. Jake and Sophia take hits. Alone but armed with dodge balls and the oven mitt, Brody manages to thwart Albatross and save the day. All three become secret agents and get chocolate-dipped ice cream bars.

The fast-paced text paints funny word pictures of airplanes gliding, dodge balls flying, and oven mitts colliding. Children will also love the inexpensive ice cream reward and remember the personal challenge to be wise, not foolish. The series is a great way to introduce or reinforce Bible-focused stewardship.

Tucker Joseph Hillman, age 10, with his grandmother

Kathy Robinson Hillman, past president

Baptist General Convention of Texas

Waco


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