Follow Your Money: Who Gets It, Who Spends It, Where Does It Go?

by Kevin Sylvester, Michael Hlinka, Julia Beck (Translator)

"What happens to your money after you hand it to the cashier?"

You pay for that cool pair of shoes or a ticket to the newest blockbuster movie; but what happens to that money once it leaves your hands? Who actually pockets it or puts it into the bank? Was the price you paid fair? Why do things cost what they do, and who benefits most from your purchase? This lively, kid-friendly book answers all these questions and others, such as, "Why are designer jeans so much more expensive than the no-name ones?"

Using fun illustrations, this book traces the long and fascinating path money travels -- from your pocket to cashier and on from there.

Kids will also discover the trail their money takes through: advertising banks charitable giving fair trade fuel (gas) shareholders taxes utilities.

Thorough and accessible, "Follow Your Money" is a vital introduction to the web of people and companies that we influence and are influenced by when we pay for a product or service.

Genres: Nonfiction

60 pages, Hardcover

First published January 29, 2013

About the author

KEVIN SYLVESTER is an award winning illustrator, writer and broadcaster.

His new sci-fi series MiNRs is now out from Simon and Schuster. MINRs was named a 2017 Honour Red Maple and Manitoba Reader's Honour book and a 2015 CLA Honour Book. MINRs2 is out. MINRs3 will be released in 2018.

His series The Neil Flambé Capers is already a bestseller and critical success. Students across Ontario picked 'Neil Flambé and the Marco Polo Murders' as the Silver Birch winner for fiction in 2011!

There are 6 books in the series so far, Neil Flambé and the Duel in the Desert is the latest.

Super-chef Gordon Ramsay calls the series “Good Fun”.

Kevin also does picture books - "Super-Duper Monster Viewer" is out from Groundwood. GREAT (with the Gretzky family) is out from Penguin.

Kevin’s first picture book 'Splinters' was published in fall 2010 by Tundra. It’s about a young girl who only wants to play hockey, but the mean coach and her daughters won’t let her. Can her fairy goaltender come to the rescue?

Kevin non-fiction titles include Follow Your Money, Baseballogy, Basketballogoy, Sports Hall of Weird and Gold Medal for Weird.

Kevin has been a broadcaster on national radio in Canada for years and years and has covered eight Olympic Games. He also produced documentaries on topics ranging from racism in hockey to the history of church bells in Canada.

He now splits his time between his attic studio in Toronto and the radio. He was named a Massey Journalism Scholar in 2007 and used the time to study theology at the University of Toronto.

Reviews

[Thano · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting. It shows you all the costs of something e.g a chocolate bar. It shows How much the wrapper costs, how much the ingredients cost and how much the shipping cost. It breaks it down and it's very easy to read. I found that it just did the exact same over and over. Overall I would recommend this book to a friend.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice look at the different costs of making things.

[Matt Speer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very short book geared toward youngsters. Not bad for juveniles, I guess. They might learn a little from this one.

[Courtney (Life as a Convert) · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I was sorting through books to review, this one caught my eye. I’m always drawn to books that will help teach a lesson and considering Losh is currently learning how to count money, I figured this book would go along well with some of his lessons.


Taken directly from the book: “This book explores where the money you spend actually goes.” Not only that, but this book goes in depth and into history regarding what money is, how the money we spend these days came about, and how it has changed over time. This book even breaks down how products get from the idea stage into our hands, including the cost we pay, the cost the manufacturer pays to produce the item, and the profit of the item for both the manufacturer and the store owner.


It was very easy to stop reading as we went along and explain in even simpler terms what some of these things meant. They book did a great job of simplifying most parts. They gave real life examples of things we purchase and used these to explain why the cost is what it is. For example, Bread:

I like how they also compared the cost of making designer jeans versus making generic jeans. I also like how this book introduced outsourcing in a very kid friendly way. Nearly everything regarding money can be found in this book.

The illustrations were spot on and were able to keep my children’s attention while discussing what was being taught.

The numbers given in the examples aren’t accurate, but then again costs vary even from city to city so I didn’t expect things to be so accurate. If your little ones are interested in all things money, then I highly recommend this book. It took us a few days to get through all 60 pages of it, but it was well worth it!

*I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for my opinions.

[Karen davisstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Follow Your Money” is a really great book to work with money lessons in math and social studies. Our standards in social studies want us to teach how the economy works and this book does a great job explaining just that, in a way students would find clear and easy to understand. In math we teach how to work with money, so this book is a good fit for both core curriculums. I would begin with doing a web with money at its center. Students would come up with different ideas about money. We don’t just spend it, we earn it, taxes are paid and spent, goods are produced by buying smaller things and paying people to put them together, natural resources are found and paid for. There are so many different components to the whole money cycle that we rarely even think about. However if students are to understand how the economy works this is the kind of knowledge they need to learn. I would then move on to a KWL chart and use the students’ prior experiences and their natural curiosity to fill out the first two columns. Then I would start to bring in chapters from the book. I see this book as being an ongoing educational tool during the entire year. I think it could be used a little at a time and we could add to our anchor chart as we learn new things in class. I have never seen a book like “Follow Your Money” before. The other books about money that I have seen, or used in the past are much more simplistic and you really have to reinvent the wheel to teach the concepts they just scratch the surface of. This book goes into great detail explaining things. Another benefit is that it has the most recent information about costs of things and what really goes into making goods to sell.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin Sylvester and Michael Hlinka do a great job of explaining basic economic concepts. They start by defining what money is and use a timeline to trace the development of money from the early barter systems to today's customs. The price of a product is broken down to show the costs for the manufacturer and seller and what will be left over as profit. The explanations use examples from the everyday lives of students - clothes, fast food, movies, cellphones, video games, etc. Each section uses several items from the category and includes illustrations and infographics to make the information easy to understand. There are even pages to explain sale prices, banking fees and interest, credit and debit cards (and the dangers of overcharging), and how the price of gas affects the prices of other goods and services. The section on snack foods brings up the concern over "fair trade" practices involving goods from other countries. And the difficult concept of taxes being added on to purchases and what taxes are used for is also covered.

This is a good book to use with students since it uses so many familiar examples to explain things. It covers the basics like how money works, taxes, and mark-ups or sales, but also introduces more advanced ideas like "fair trade" and the difference between net and gross profit. I would recommend this to anyone who is learning about simple economics.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

[Ariana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay. I found it didn't really answer the questions it was supposed to answer. It was also very repetitive the same breakdown just with different items every time but the items every kid I think will purchase at some time in their life like a chocolate bar, a baseball hat, a MP3 player stuff like that. It is SUPPOSED to be about~what happens when the money leaves your hands? Is it a good idea to get a credit card? Why does designer clothing cost more than no name brand? But it really didn't come up or at least how I would of thought it would. Overall I wouldn't recommend this book to a person looking for information on money in general but probably more to a person looking into why do things cost what they do.

[Dolores · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the concept this book portrays, so I was excited to read this. Somewhere along the way my interest waned. Maybe I shouldn't have read it all in one sitting. Though the examples were varied and should appeal to the target audience, it began to feel repetitive. Also, as I looked more closely at the numbers and flipped back and forth to different pages to compare, I just didn't feel like the figures were consistent (I have done no actual research on my own).

The information is well presented and interesting to read - I did have several "aha" moments. I do think that today's youth need to understand money and how our economy works and this book will certainly do that.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fascinating to learn what happens to your money after you hand it to the cashier, because I've never given it much thought. So, after reading this book, it has enabled me to be a smarter consumer. In my opinion, I also think it is important to read this book at a young age, because it will guide us later on in our journey to adulthood. But even if you did read this at an older age, it would still make any reader think carefully. The book was also very easy to understand and very effective in making the reader think about where things come from, etc. I'm glad I read this book, because I will now make better financial decisions!

[Erika Janni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was actually a pretty decent book. It taught me a lot of lessons for the future, and how a good way to spend my money would be. It helps you learn how to spend your money in a good way, I learned not only how to spend it, i learned how much the material is that they use to make those things, like your school supplies. And cellphones and clothing. This book was actually a really good book and taught me a lot of new things!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book to read all the way through: it explores the costs of 20 or so different products from music to pizza to pets. It also explains some basic financial concepts: profit, taxes, credit cards. Very useful for math class and a valuable addition to our woefully economically under-educated nation.

[Megan Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was full of interesting facts. I liked how there was humour all over this book just to make you smile. It was cool how each page told you how most of our everyday stuff is made and manufacture. Learning this stuff was really cool, it taught you how much each employee from a job gets and why. I really enjoyed this book and hope to read more books like it.

[Hailie Bienvenu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was really interesting. It tells you where your money goes after u buy something. For example: a game console, it tells you how much money goes to the company and the store. To be honest I thought it all just went in the cash register, so I've learned a lot of cool facts about money from this book.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice book about money!