Dollars to Doughnuts

Looking for a fun, quick chapter book series that helps teach kids about money things–budgets, credit cards, etc–and yet still engages their creative side? The Dollars to Doughnuts series is the perfect bang for your buck here, balancing pedantic elements with kids series fun including school drama, friendships, etc.

Lucy and her best friend Julian are the protagonist of this developing reader chapter book—it’s akin length wise to Mindy Kim, with a few more black and white illustrations throughout, by my measure.

In the first book , Birthday Bling, Lucy wants a sweater that her wealthy classmate has, and decides to use her birthday gift card to buy it, but when the card declines, she and Julian learn about credit versus debit versus gift cards.

In the second, Batter Splatter, the kids’ cooking club puts on a bake sale to replace the banner they ruin with some strawberry stained batter, and learn about budgeting, expenses, etc.

Both of these were fun, quick reads. I found them instructional but still fun–not too pedantic, but still making sure you get the gist! Each ends with a funny little comic strip, but engages with vocabulary related to baking, money, banking, and school throughout. This is great for pre-readers of the Cupcake Diaries as well!