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Lawn Boy (Tales to Tickle the Funnybone #7)

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 2,661 ratings · 534 reviews

One day I was 12 years old and broke. Then Grandma gave me Grandpa's old riding lawnmower. I set out to mow some lawns. More people wanted me to mow their lawns. And more and more. . . . One client was Arnold the stockbroker, who offered to teach me about "the beauty of capitalism. Supply and Demand. Diversify labor. Distribute the wealth." "Wealth?" I said. "It's groovy,...more

Paperback, 96 pages

Published March 24th 2009 by Yearling (first published June 12th 2007)

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Jan 17, 2013 Sean K. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

On Duane's birthday his grandma gets him a old rusty riding lawn mower that used to be his grandpa's. At first he couldn't care less about the mower, but then he looked at it and started the engine by pulling the cord. He rode around and that's when his life changed.
The author puts a lot off realistic detail through out most of the book (so far) and this book relates to common day life for a kid because a kid could do chores or how kids make a lemonade.. Duane ends up doing a ton of lawn mowing...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Hannah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fluff-reading

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 31, 2008 babyhippoface rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: 4th grade and up; economics teachers

Shelves: kids-fiction, math-concepts, humor

Lawn Boy is a super-fast read (about an hour, total) with more action, character development, and snickers packed into its spare little 88 pages than about a hundred fatter novels I could rattle off.

I liked it right off the bat, mostly because of the narrator's description of his grandma in the first chapter: My grandmother is the kind of person who always thinks that no matter how bad things might seem, everything will always come out all right. Her hair could be on fire and she'd probably say...more

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Feb 06, 2008 Vicki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: 4 grade up to middle school

Recommended to Vicki by: Mock Newbery list

This is a first person narrative that is about a 12 year old boy who gets a lawnmower from his grandpa and starts making money. The book smiles it's way to funny and is very fast read. It definitely pushes reality and you don't want to ignore the chapter title as they expand the humor. What's funny about "Overutilization of Labor Compounded by Unpredicted Capital Growth" you may say. In conjunction with the chapter, it's funny! The humor is often in the enormous understatements:
Un-named narrator...more

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Jun 05, 2008 Hazel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For his birthday he recieves an old lawnmower from his Grand-ma. A lawnmower? Well its the middle of summer and he has been wanting to earn some money to buy this new bike...so he goes into the lawnmowing buisiness. When this neighbor, Arnold, gets him to start expanding his business by employing others to mow the comtinuely growing number of clients lawnsand by investing in stock before he realizes it he has a bunch of money...more than enough to but his bike! But, with all great empires comes...more

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Mar 18, 2009 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lawn boy is about a 12 year old kid who makes 1/2 a million dollars off of mowing lawns. It all started at his 12th birthday, he received an old riding mower from his grandmother, he hopes he can make enough money to buy an inner tube for his ten-speed. First when he was starting the mower a neighbor came by offering him him 20 bucks for a mowing job. But when he cuts the grass for a stockbroker, he learns some very profitable ways to increase his earnings. This book is written in first perspect...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Kaitlyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lawn Boy
By: Gary Paulsen
Review by: Kaitlyn

Gary Paulsen has written MANY wonderful stories, that I highly recommend this one. Lawn Boy is so real, but yet different from the rest of his stories. This story takes place in Minnesota, in a neighborhood called, Eden Prairie, where they’re tons of lawns to be mowed!

Some IMPORTANT characters are:
Arnold
Grandma
Mom
Dad
&
The Lawn Mowing Crew

A funny quote from, Grandma is:
My Grandmother is the kind of person who always thinks that no matter how bad t...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Kori Looker rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Lawn Boy is about a boy who wasn't in any sports during the summer, his friends were, and didn't have anything to do until one day.. One day, the Lawn Boy received a lawnmower from his grandma. He took that lawnmower to good use and made a business out of his summer involving a few helpers. His business grew and so did his income. It was an interesting book. I'd recommend this book to kids who are looking for things to do during the summer. The book may give someone ideas for their summer.

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Apr 18, 2012 Scott rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you want to read a story about the luckiest boy on Earth who does basically nothing except watch passively as other people make decisions for him that he doesn't understand, then I guess you might kind of like this story.

If, like most people, you want a character who gets himself into challenging situations, makes tough decisions, and takes fate into his own hands, then this book is definitely not for you.

Just about the only thing Lawn Boy does in the whole book is fire up the old riding mowe...more If you want to read a story about the luckiest boy on Earth who does basically nothing except watch passively as other people make decisions for him that he doesn't understand, then I guess you might kind of like this story.

If, like most people, you want a character who gets himself into challenging situations, makes tough decisions, and takes fate into his own hands, then this book is definitely not for you.

Just about the only thing Lawn Boy does in the whole book is fire up the old riding mower that his grandparents gave him. After that, neighbors start asking him to mow their lawns and giving him whatever they think is fair. (I think $20 is an awful lot for one lawn, by the way.) Then he meets Arnold, the story's protagonist in the sense that he pushes the story along. Arnold doesn't have cash, so he invests Lawn Boy's money, making him super rich. He also gets Lawn Boy some employees, manages the books, and basically runs the whole company for him. Lawn Boy does nothing except say "uh huh," and "I don't really understand," (neither does the reader), and "I already have enough money. You don't need to be so generous with me." But Arnold insists on managing the company and generously letting Lawn Boy keep most of the earnings. The employees, who have their own trucks and trailers and mowers could have tried to compete with Lawn Boy for business, but for some inexplicable reason, they would rather work for Lawn Boy and let him make most of the money. It doesn't make any sense.

Everything goes smoothly until the end when some bad guys show up and demand something, but the other guys take care of that without Lawn Boy having to do anything.

This is the most boring main character I've ever read about — a far cry from Gary Paulsen's Brian in Hatchet, who struggles so hard just to survive.

This book also fails to teach anything about capitalism. It has outlandish chapter titles, but all of the lessons about capitalism are told by Arnold to Lawn Boy, who doesn't really understand.(less)

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Sep 22, 2011 Jd M rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is called lawn boy and it is pretty good so far I haven’t finished it yet but i am almost done with it and I am going to write a book review on what I have read so far. So it is about a boy that is 12 years old and is broke. So he asks his dad if could use his lawn mower and he said yes so he started to make a lawn mowing biasness. so he goes ahead and asked his Nabors and she was asking like, do you do a good job, how much will you pay me and so he finally got her to say he’s and he...more This book is called lawn boy and it is pretty good so far I haven’t finished it yet but i am almost done with it and I am going to write a book review on what I have read so far. So it is about a boy that is 12 years old and is broke. So he asks his dad if could use his lawn mower and he said yes so he started to make a lawn mowing biasness. so he goes ahead and asked his Nabors and she was asking like, do you do a good job, how much will you pay me and so he finally got her to say he’s and he did it and got 20 dollars then another person came up to him asking if he could come mow there yard so he did there yard and now he has 40 dollars. so then he got another person’s yard now he had 60 dollars so he got some more peoples yard and he thought seen this was easy to him so now he had to start buying gas so now he starts going out every day to go mow lawns then two weeks later he had like 300 dollars. so he gets and idea to start going to the rich side of the neighborhood where there yards are a lot bigger and that means that you can charge them more so he goes to this rich guys house and asked him and he said yes so he asked how much he pay him for and he said 40 so he did that and he started to mow lawns in the rich parts of the neighborhood so he can get more money but after a while he had so many yards that he could only do about 3 a day so he had to start turning them down so he had this friend that said he would help but there still wasn’t enough people so he thought about quilting but his friend noo some people that needed jobs so the next day they came over and helped out and got about 5 or 6 houses a day and one of the guys had a truck to care everything and one of his friends usually worked on hoses at night like feudalizing so they got more money. so pages go on and they go to this one guys house and they said they wanted 40 to the guy and he didn’t have any money so he said instead of paying u in cash I could u a trailer to carry all your stuff in there so they got a trailer and put all their stuff in the trailer, attached to the truck. then they decided to make a bank account because the had like a couple thousand dollars pretty much just laying around in his room but he said that u have to pay for a bank account and u have to pay taxes for it so they did sided to do that and everybody would pitch in to help pay for the bank account. but when he went home he wanted to take everybody out for a movie but he decided not to cause his dad lost his job and right now he had more than his own dad but the next morning his dad ask him how much money he mad and he told him and the dad got really mad ......if you want to no want happens you have to read the book. YOU SHOULD READ IT ITS GREAT…….(less)

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May 01, 2011 Brenna McEvitt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 4-6-books

This is a wonderful read from Gary Paulsen. It tells the story of a young boy who gets a lawn mower for his birthday. He begins a lawn mowing business that expands and expands, causing him to need employees and an investor. This book includes many twists and turns, while helping children learn a bit about how our economic system works. The vocabulary in the book is quite difficult to understand, however. When I use this book in my Gary Paulsen literature unit, I make sure to review a glossary of...more

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Mar 09, 2011 Cailey B added it · review of another edition

The book "Lawn Boy" is a good because it gives a good lesson of a couple things. For an example when the grandma gives him the lawn mower it isn't the best thing to get but he didn't say anything bad. And he learns how to live with what he got.
After I read the book I think my favorite character is the grandma. She is not talked about a lot in the book but from what I read about her I like her character. Like right when she walked into the house at the beginning of the book and shows him the mo...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Marjorie Light rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

LAWN BOY by Gary Paulsen
One of the favorite books in my 7th grade classes right now is LAWN BOY by Gary Paulsen. Just Paulsen’s name alone is enough to get a student to try this book, as most of them know his novel HATCHET from a read-aloud in elementary school. Students love his accessible writing and fast-paced plot lines. In one class, the boys are passing around my copies and begging for their buddies to hurry up and finish. (It all started when I book-talked a batch of books the previous we...more LAWN BOY by Gary Paulsen
One of the favorite books in my 7th grade classes right now is LAWN BOY by Gary Paulsen. Just Paulsen’s name alone is enough to get a student to try this book, as most of them know his novel HATCHET from a read-aloud in elementary school. Students love his accessible writing and fast-paced plot lines. In one class, the boys are passing around my copies and begging for their buddies to hurry up and finish. (It all started when I book-talked a batch of books the previous week.)

In LAWN BOY, Paulsen is at his funniest when a perfectly normal wish for a replacement bike tube leads the 12-year-old main character into a life of entrepreneurship. His summer of leisure takes a drastic turn when his grandmother gifts him with his grandfather’s old riding lawnmower.

The grandmother is an eccentric woman who has odd words of wisdom for people that are often seemingly disjointed, but do have a circuitous connection to reality. It is through her unusual gift that LAWN BOY is born and the wheels of fortune begin to roll.

From there we meet Arnold, one of his first customers, a work-from-home day trader, who strikes a deal with the budding businessman. Instead of paying him for mowing, he will invest his money in penny stocks. The reader is unsure of whether or not to trust Arnold, even though the narrator trusts his schemes immediately.

LAWN BOY is filled with humorous, easy-to-understand lessons on basic economics: stocks, capital growth, and investing. Readers see the value of hard work and the importance of treating employees fairly. The foreshadowing sprinkled throughout and the cliffhanger chapter endings keep my students turning pages. Not only that, Paulsen fills the book with wacky situations that compound upon one another, leading to a riotous ending.

Great for reluctant or slow readers, LAWN BOY is only 88 pages long and has much white space, which makes it non-threatening. It is also great for a higher-leveled reader who wants something quick to read, but with a good laugh.

~Marjorie Light
(less)

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Feb 11, 2011 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Boys & Girls 8-15

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It was good, fast-paced, but really not my genre. I read it in about 3 hours, however, I was taking notes on each chapter. Here a review for each chapter:

1) The Principals of Economic Expansion
Lawn Boy receives his grandfather’s old, small riding lawnmower for his 12th birthday. While testing it out on his family’s small, dead lawn, their neighbor asks him to mow his lawn too.

2) The Growth of Capitalism
Lawn Boy receives $60 total after he’s mowed the first neighbor and 2 other neighbor’s lawns....more

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Jan 20, 2011 Patrick Peterson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sense-of-life, kids

Really enjoyed it. Very short book (about 88 pages) of very fast, fun, instructive and very funny reading.

Gary Paulsen, the author, is a master of writing humor and adventure for boys. Arthur and I saw him give a talk in person on his life and writing last spring and were also similarly impressed. Parts of the basic talk he gives are on YouTube, if you're curious. Recommended. Neat sense of life, neat stories.

We will be discussing this book in a couple weeks for our little www.Capitalism4Kids.co ...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Noelle rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book irritated me so much that I felt an overwhelming desire to tell someone, anyone, my opinion. Simply put, this book deserves to come with a parental advisory warning. The overall topic is fine but the storyline is marred with controversy. First off, the boy hires 15 illegal Hispanic workers who all live in a single shack-like house and pack 4/5 deep into pick up trucks to go to their landscape jobs. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! How racist is this?! These workers are paid nominally (the white la...more

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Feb 23, 2010 L- Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, realistic-fiction

The audio version of this Gary Paulsen preteen novel is hilarious as the 12 year old boy character receives a used riding lawn mower from his grandmother for his birthday. His goal of earning enough money to purchase a new inner tube for his bike blossoms into a full fledge business with Arnold, one of his first yard clients investing the boy’s earnings in the stock market. What starts as one client builds to a business that employs a staff of 15 and includes a sponsorship of a boxer. As the lis...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, 5013

This book is insanely hilarious.

Lawn Boy gets an old, run-down, barely running lawn mower for his birthday from his eccentric, wacky grandmother. He figures, 'what the heck', and figures out a way to get it running. Little does he know that the neighborhood lawn guy just up and left and ran away with a married woman. So, quite unexpectedly, he is in the lawn care business for his whole neighborhood! Then, Arnold Howell shows up. He wants his lawn mowed, too. Problem is, he has a 'cash flow' pro...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Yvonne Powderly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It all started with a lawn mower, and thus was born an economic empire.
When his birthday rolls around, our unsuspecting entrepreneur’s grandma shows up with his present. Instead of money for his birthday, which would've come in handy, she gives him this old lawn mower that used to belong to his grandfather.
So he starts mowing neighbors' lawns to solve his money problems.
This short and hilarious tale pitches an ordinary kid with an old riding lawn mower into a dizzying ascent up the financial...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Chris Murray rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: boy-book, humor

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May 27, 2011 Mrs. McLeod rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Offbeat Humor Aficionados

Recommended to Mrs. McLeod by: Josh H.

Shelves: realistic-fiction, humor, financial

Lawn Boy has a birthday and his eccentric grandmother drops off his grandfather's old lawn mower for him. This gift sets off a chain reaction of events in Lawn Boy's life. Like many typical American youngsters, he starts a lawn service. The lawn service brings him to day trader, Arnold's, front door. Arnold is instrumental in Lawn Boy's financial education. With Arnold's help, Lawn Boy grows his lawn business, ends up employing 15 people, is the sponsor of a prize fighter, makes a ton of money i...more

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Sep 08, 2009 Rachael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very quick read about a 12-year-old boy who unintentionally starts a lawn-mowing business with the ride-on mower he receives for his birthday. Things start to go out of control as he acquires more lawns than he can cut on his own, prompting him to hire employees and even a stock broker. The main character expresses his continued disbelief over the growth of his business by speaking in short sentences and single-sentence paragraphs. It seems that a main purpose of the book is to teach kids about...more

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Dec 02, 2011 L.N. Cronk rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book had so much potential, but fell short in my opinion. It started out very funny and had a lot of interesting things going for it (especially the grandma with her wacky sayings that actually weren't wacky once you learned the whole story behind them). I kept waiting the truth behind more of her saying to be revealed, but it never happened and I felt that a great opportunity was missed. The ending, was also very anticlimatic. Things just kept getting better and better financially (and mor...more

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Apr 16, 2008 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: teens, especially those with an interest in economics

Shelves: young-adult-lit, fiction

The narrator inherits an old lawn mower and starts a lawn mowing business. Before he knows it, he's got more business than he can handle and a hippie stockbroker making investments for him. Each chapter title has something to do with an economic principle and we are taken along on the ride as the young narrator learns more than he ever wanted to learn about capitalism.

Very quick read. Cute.

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Oct 18, 2010 Jon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book i read was Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars because it is an easy quick read. This book is about a 12 year old boy who's grandma gives him a riding lawnmower. He needs money to get his bike fixed so he uses the mower to mow lawns and make money. Eventually he gets too many customers and has to make advancments in his "business". This book maybe short in length but definitely is not short in twist, this makes the book interesting and hard to put down.

I can rela...more

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Jun 21, 2011 Jean Haberman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was anxious to read this book because it was in hot demand last year in our elementary library media center. It definitely appeals to 4th and 5th grade boys. They couldn't wait for the sequel, "Lawn Boy Returns." "Lawn Boy" teaches the laws of economics through a boy who develops a lawn-mowing business with an old riding lawnmower that he receives from his eccentric grandmother for his 12th birthday. In this short novel, the boy entrusts his money to a stranger who invests it in the stock mark...more

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Apr 14, 2010 Denise rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a fast read which introduces young adults to many financial terms in a very humorous way. Best suited for middle school students grades 6-8 based on content. While it is presented in a humorous, slapstick way there are some controversial topics. For example, the twelve year old boy is bullied by an adult who threatens him and avoids calling the police. His mother agrees because the his employees are "poor people" who may get in trouble because may not be "properly documented." While thi...more

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Feb 08, 2009 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lawn Boy is so easy to read and its funny.I read it in three days. Lawn Boy is about a kid who gets this lawnmower from his grandma so he can earn money to buy a new innertube for his bike. After he gets his lawn mowed, everyone started asking him to mow thier lawn. One day, he meets this guy named Arnold. Arnold asks him "how much money do you want? $45 or $40?" Arnold didn't have the cash but worked out a trade. He opened a trading account for lawn boy and bought a share of stock. Lawn boy als...more

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Jan 08, 2010 Bryant rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: realistic_fiction

Lawn Boy
By:Gary Paulsen

A boy gets an old lawnmower for his birthday. He started out not too happy because his yard was just dirt. He eventually tried mowing his lawn and his neighbor came over and asked if he would mow his. He said yes because he needed money for a bike part. Soon he had jobs all over his town. Then has all this money and he has no idea what to do with it!

This book was a good book. I did abandon it, but i decided to finish it and I am glad I did. This book is funny, short,...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Caitlin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lawn Boy is a story about a 12 year old boy who gets a lawn mower from his grandmother on his birthday. At first he doesn't understand why she would give him a lawn mower but then he becomes attached to it as he begins to mow his lawn. After a while he is hired by all of his neighbors and begins to make money, which he is saving up for an inner tube for his bike. But, instead of saving up money for his inner tube he finds himself meeting Arnold, a hippie day-trader, and getting into some interes...more

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Interesting, funny, and overall good book.	1	14	Jan 12, 2011 03:19pm

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About Gary Paulsen

Although he was never a dedicated student, Paulsen developed a passion for reading at an early age. After a librarian gave him a book to read--along with his own library card--he was hooked. He began spending hours alone in the basement of his apartment building, reading one book after another.

Running away from home at the age of 14 and traveling with a carnival, Paulsen acquired a taste for adve...more

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Lawn Boy (Tales to Tickle the Funnybone #7)

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