Cleo Edison, Playground Millionaire, written by Sundee Tucker Frazier, reviewed by Debra Gantz

Summary:  Cleo is a 5th grader with a passion project assigned by her teacher. She decides removing loose teeth with a nerf gun would be a needed and profitable business and fords ahead by bringing said toy to school, "borrowing" a device without asking, posting on You Tube without asking, and using her little brother and her friend for organization and video advertising, ends with obvious consequences from school, her friend Caylee, and her family.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  I am a bit torn on this book. The vocabulary for building budding entrepreneurs, the attachments I fear for children watching TV programs, and using the internet without supervision is what bothered me. There is so much valuable vocabulary and the connections to how media may affect people with powers of persuasion, obsession, and connection are unsurpassed by any other book I have read. This book has some major issues to note: adoption is not just about love, but also about loss. Divorce and new families extending your family affects kids at their souls and is sometimes overpowering. We all need people in our lives to recognize our battles and help us move forward despite them. Teachers who read this book are likely to realize some of the traditional projects, like family trees, inherently involve big feelings and possibly some outbursts from students who have more than one tree to create. Giving adults and children a chance to express their thoughts on how Cleo handles her feelings about the woman who gave her up for adoption and her adoptive family and how Caylee handles her father leaving and starting a new family and where that leaves her are important conversations. I love how Cleo grows in this story and begins to recognize her business dreams may affect others.

I will forever believe that how students grow in this world is helped along by books with issues. Characters having issues allows us to build compassion, empathy, and may help us to handle our own baggage in better and kinder ways.