Lemonade for Sale: A MathStart Picture Book About Bar Graphs and Data Analysis for Kids (Ages 6-10)

MathStart: Level 3 #6

by Stuart J. Murphy, Tricia Tusa (Illustrator)

“Kids, young and old, fall in love with math when they see how real-life and effortless it becomes thanks to these books.” --Kimberly D. Mueller, Ed.D., First Grade Teacher, Ashbrook School, Lumberton NJ Lemonade for Sale introduces children to bar graphs. Bar graphs require gathering, charting, and comparing data. Children will learn these key skills for assessing progress and making predictions. In this story, the Elm Street Kids decide to raise money by selling lemonade. At first, business booms, but then it drops off. The Elm Street Kids use a bar graph to plot the number of cups sold on each day of the week and figure out what to do. Young readers may be inspired to start their own lemonade stands—and use a bar graph to plot their progress. Kids will love the story and the funny illustrations by Tricia Tusa. Parents and educators will love how the story and pictures make understanding comparisons a breeze—as well as the concrete examples of how math works. The book contains activities for adults to do with kids to extend math into their own lives.  Math skills are life skills, and the MathStart series supports success! MathStart's unique combination of stories, illustrations, and visual models helps teachers and parents in the teaching of math and provides all children with the opportunity to succeed. The math concepts taught in MathStart books conform to state and national standards. Level 1 is Pre-K–Kindergarten; Level 2 is Grades 1–3; Level 3 is Grades 2–4. The series follows math topics across grades so there is a foundational path to learning that runs through the levels. Help kids with their math skills  plus  their reading skills with the engaging and fun MathStart series!

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Childrens, Money, Education, Fiction, School

40 pages, Paperback

First published December 18, 1997

About the author

PICTURES & WORDS, STORIES & BOOKS
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com

I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.

I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.

I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.

MATHSTART

The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.

The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.

Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )

THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL

Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”

STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN

My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.

I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.

Each book is reviewed by a tea

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this story, a group of children set out to raise money to repair their clubhouse. They decide to start a lemonade stand and use bar graphs to chart their sales.

I'm afraid this one really fell flat for me, but perhaps that is because I was expecting a book more about the business side of having a lemonade stand and this really just focused on the math/charting side (and the story itself isn't particularly memorable/special.) I wanted more explanation about the cost of doing business vs. the money they brought in, supply/demand, gross/net things like that. And the introduction of "competition" wasn't really handled in a realistic way, I don't think. That said, it does seem like a decent introduction to bar graphs for children.

[Sandra Couch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: The members of the Elm Street Club and their parrot, need money to fix up their clubhouse. One of the members had an idea of selling lemonade to raise money, so they pulled out a table and sat curbside with cups filled with lemonade waiting for people to walk by. While selling, one of the members kept track of the sales on a graph and they sold 30 cups on the first day. Each day they sold lemonade, there sales increased. The day they drastically declined, they found their competition. The members of the Elm Street Club quickly figure out they need to work together if they want to save their club house.

Setting: The setting in this book is a backdrop one because the setting is not important to the story and selling lemonade could occur anywhere. We know from the text that the members sold their lemonade in their neighborhood as it is referenced several times that most of the neighborhood stopped by every time it was sold. The illustrations depict a middle-class neighborhood. However, selling lemonade could occur in front of their local grocery store or at their local park and they could have raised just enough money for their clubhouse. The setting contributes to the story in the way that it allows the reader to relate to the story that affects the overall mood. For example, since the selling of lemonade takes place in their neighborhood, it made me remember when I bought lemonade from kids in my neighborhood. My mood was influenced by this because in most middle-class neighborhoods, the atmosphere is very friendly as the kids play with one another and parents could be friends, so it isn’t very unlikely that the neighborhood is going to help raise money. For example, I felt a sense of empathy when they were no longer selling any more cups of lemonade since the juggler was attracting all the attention. But once Sheri got Jed to juggle by their lemonade stand, my mood quickly changed to excited since I knew this would help them raise enough money. I think the author did this as a way for kids to relate to. Maybe they did something similar or they saw someone selling lemonade, or maybe it will inspire them to try it when they need a buck or to, they can also easily compare to see who raised more, which would be fun to do.

Theme: The theme in this book is a business can succeed, big or small to make enough money to meet a goal. I think that the author is showing kids this because it is an important concept for them to understand if they want to work for a goal. In the story, the kids never quit and continuing to work hard towards their goal. For example, when their neighbors stopped buying lemonade and they hardly sold any cups, that didn’t stop them from selling lemonade, but instead it motivated them to work together with Jed to provide entertainment as well as allowing them to increase sales. This teaches kids that they can mow lawns, help their parents with yardwork, or even sell lemonade for a small amount of pay and at the same time save for what they want. The elements contribute to the story in the way that the character’s experiences shape the theme. For example, if they didn’t sell any lemonade all week, the story would have taken a different path and the theme would not be that small business can succeed with enough effort and contribution.

Front Matter: The front matter of this book can give us a short clue as to what the rest of the book will be about. For example, the first page the reader opens to is a double page spread of what appears to be a tablecloth, a chart and sixteen lemons dancing around on the page. This hints that the book will not only be about a lemonade stand but the fact that there are sixteen lemon on a two-page spread could also foreshadow that the Elm Street Club use a lot of lemons and that they will sell enough cups to save their clubhouse. Included in the front matter is the copyright information and the title page which is Petey their parrot sipping a glass of lemonade. Petey is sitting down on the tablecloth sipping on a glass of ice cold lemonade with a long straw hinting that he is sitting sort of far away from it. In this illustration, I can insinuate that the kids and Petey worked hard which is why he is sitting far away from the glass, too tired to move closer after all the hard work they did in fixing up their clubhouse. The elements contribute to the story because they help set the scene and can help establish a mood for the type of story that we will be reading. For example, when I saw the lemons dancing I thought that this book was going to be about something fun and happy because the lemons were having fun.

Point of View (Visual Element): There are different points of view in this book, most of the time we are level with the illustration simply as a viewer, but in a couple scenes we are looking down on the illustration. The different angles that we view, allows us to get a different viewpoint of what is occurring in the story. For example, in the scene where the kids are not selling any lemonade the illustration shows a portion of their neighborhood with some houses and the kids table with lemons piled sky high, but no one in sight. This contributes to the story in that we really can see that there was no one around in that portion of their neighborhood to buy any lemonade and we are able to get a better understanding of the amount of monetary loss in sales that happened that day and even the moods that they were feeling.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction Genre Relation: This book fits into the contemporary realistic genre because even though this story isn’t real, the story is believable and can be set in our modern world today. These character and events could very well be real people. In fact, there are still kids today that sell lemonade in their neighborhood to save money for a toy or something else that they may want. There are no superpowers or magic that helps them sell that amount lemonade cups that they do. Last, this could happen in real life. It is possible that neighborhood kids start a small business such as lemonade selling and they could have competition just down the road that better attracts the neighborhood, maybe their competition is selling ice cream or offering to mow lawns.

Opinion: I liked this book overall, I enjoyed the wacky neighborhood characters that were included in the illustrations. For example, the first neighbors that bought lemonade were walking dogs, the next day there was a day who appeared to be going to Paris as she had a Paris luggage, her cat, cats bowl and a mountain full of various items that she was carrying on her head. These illustrations are humorous and made me laugh as an adult! They are good conversation starters for kids in talking about the different types of people we encounter. I think this book is a fun way to get kids thinking about way to save money while using math. I initially thought this book was going to be about the typical neighborhood kids trying to sell lemonade and was surprised that it used graphs and math in it but overall thought this was a good way to show kids that math is important in the real world..

[Esperanza · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book Lemonade for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy and illustrated by Tricia Tusa, is about four children who needs some money to fix their clubhouse, so they decide to sell lemonade. They use a bar graph to record the number of cups they sell; each day, Petey, the Parrot squawked, “Lemonade for sale! Lemonade for sale!” and they sold more cups until Thursday. The children could not figure out why people weren’t buying lemonade that day, until they saw a crowed surrounding a boy who was juggling. On Friday, the boy juggled by the lemonade stand so the children could sell more lemonade.

I enjoyed this book because it reminded me of my childhood and having lemonade stands with my sisters. Of course, we never sold as much as the children in this book do. I also enjoyed it because the children use a bar graph and I think that is a great way to get math into a book, I would love to read books like this to my future students to teach them math while we read.

This book is written in the third person omniscient point of view, we know this because the author tells the thoughts and actions of all the characters. I think this point of view works well in the book because none of the characters stand out, they are all of the same importance and working as a team. The setting of this book is outside in a neighborhood. This is where most lemonade stands would be, so it works.

I enjoyed the use of color in this book, there were many different colors and it made the book more visually appealing and brought out the fun in book. I think it great for children because they see the fun in a lemonade sale as well as in making bar graphs. On page 9, each character is shown individually doing their job, this shows point of view. By doing this, the illustrator gave the reader a close up look of each character and the different steps in having a lemonade stand.

This book is contemporary realistic fiction because it tells a story that could happen in real life. The setting is believable, the characters are believable, and the plot is believable; these are all key components to contemporary realistic fiction.

[Bonnie Pohlig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great way to introduce kids to using bar graphs! It shows what information should be plotted on each axis, and how to chart your data, and how to compare the bars. And it's a fun story. You could even use it to make predictions about what will happen in the book, and it has some nice descriptive words that children could get involved in saying/acting. It has really fun pictures too.

(Technically, this is fiction, because it has a made up story, but it teaches a nonfiction principle.)

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The children of the Elm Street Kids' Club are back with another story developed my Murphy and Tusa to make math fun. The math concept of this book is bar graphs. The children need money to build a new clubhouse and they decide selling lemonade is the best way to raise the funds. They sell lemonade for five days and keep track of their sales on a bar graph. The illustrations are amazingly detailed and add spinets of humor to this educational story.

A note to parents is included in the back to offer tips for teaching and additional resources about bar graphs.

[Sade]

I would use this book in the classroom to introduce bar graphs to my second grade class. Because the book also talks about the lemonade sells for 25 cents a cup, it also made an excellent lesson on money and place value. I can see children really enjoying the colorful illustrations.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another fun story in the MathStart Level 3 series by Stuart J. Murphy. We like these books; they incorporate math principles into the story and show how math is fun and useful in everyday life.

I liked the determination of the children to find a way to fund their club, but I was a little put off by the sheer numbers of their sales. Perhaps they live on a busy city street - otherwise most neighborhoods would not be able to support such numbers and I'm afraid that enterprising children might be misled about their profit potential from a small lemonade stand. In fact, our girls have brought up the idea to have a stand of their own, but with our quiet neighborhood they'd be lucky to make a sale or two each day. Still, it's an entertaining story and the lesson on bar graphs is easy to understand. I was thrilled when our girls took the concept a step further and talked about the average sales for the week.

Overall, it's an entertaining story with colorful and informative illustrations. It's a fun book to read aloud and we enjoyed reading this book together.

[Karissa Kelly]

This book is about a group of friends wanting to raise money for their clubhouse that is falling apart. So, they put their brains together and decide to start a lemonade stand. Each kid volunteers for a job. Matthew squeezed lemons, Meg mixed sugar, Danny poured it into iced cups, and Sheri kept track of how many cups they had sold by using a bar graph. Everyday they would look at the bar graph to see if they had sold more or less lemonade and by the end their total skyrockets when they meet a juggler down the street.

I thought this book was great. I loved how efficient the kids were and how they used their math skills to keep track of their progress. It is a great book for learning about bar graphs and in the back of the book it gives tips on how to teach math lessons by using the book.

I definitely recommend this book. It would be great in a classroom setting and could help a kid struggling with bar graphs.

[Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of four kids that want to repair their club house but don't have the money to do it. One of the kids says they should have a lemonade stand to raise the money. They all pick a job and split up the responsibilities. Everyday they keep making more and more lemonade and the neighborhood turns out to buy more and more lemonade from them. Then one day nobody shows up. The group heads out to investigate and sees that a new kid has moved to town with his juggling skills and he has attracted the whole neighborhood. The kids ask him to join them and he does allowing the club to make more than enough to repair the club house. The four kids ask Jed, the new kid to join their club and he happily agrees. I loved the illustration style in this book and how well the story showed the kids being responsibility. This would be a good book to read to kids to teach them about hard work and responsibility.

[Shani Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lemonade for Sale is a story in which a group of friends use bar graphs to track their lemonade sales. The story helps readers understand how to read bar graphs and create them. Since this topc may be difficult for students to understand so a teacher might create several bar graphs with their students to ensure that they understand the steps used to create bar graphs, the types of information bar graphs contain, and how to read them. The class could choose to graph the weather for the week or compile unique classroom data such as the number of languages that everyone speak or favorite pet or favorite ice cream flavor. This can also help students get to know their classmates and discover similarities they might not have been aware of.

[Caitlin Mauragas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book to teach economics as well! A little girl starts her own lemonade stand. Young kids can earn money if they want to. This would be a great book to discuss needs and wants. If you want something you can find a way to earn the money to get it. This way children can decide if what they want is actually worth earning the money to get. And if they really do want the item in question that being industrious is worth it.

[Katherine Fountain · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a clubhouse becomes broken, two children set out to raise money for repairs by selling lemonade at a lemonade stand. To track the lemonade sells and money raised for the fund, the children use graphing to stay organized. This is a fun and relatable way for children to connect to graphing with great explanations and steps shown for each new sell. You could easily use this story for a review on money or to introduce graphing to young children.

[Gaby Roman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this author. He writes excellent math books. I would use this book to teach a lesson about bar graphs. I would use it in a center and have the kids graph along with the story, or I would allow the students to create their own story and implement bar graphing in the story. I would discuss different types of bar graphs with my students as well. I may even have a center about charting the amount of books the class or student has read for the week. This story was great!

[Maleigha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book about four students who decide to run a lemonade stand in order to raise money for their clubhouse that needs some repairs. You may use this for introducing/teaching charting and graphing because the characters create a simple bar graph to show their sales. "Lemonade for Sale" is a well illustrated book that keeps students engaged. It is great for grade 1st-3rd and also for a visual learning experience.

[Kristen Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story evolves around four kids that create a lemonade stand and how they come up with a strategy using a bar graph to distribute it to their customers.
Can be used to teach a variety of mathematics concepts, including sorting, money, etc.
* Use to teach students sequencing (i.e. What are the steps that we need to take in order to prepare our lemonade stand?)
* Use to teach students how to write pieces explaining how-to.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one. I didn't care for the illustrations, and the story wasn't anything amazing, but it was pleasant and the kiddos enjoyed it. I thought the math lesson would bore them, but it didn't seem to, and they had pretty good retention both of the story and of the underlying concepts. One of the kids even asked if he could keep the book, so you know it was fun for them. In fact, they liked it much more than I did. Go figure!

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a great book to read with children and to teach math. This book could be used to introduce graphs in kindergarten or first grade. The story follows a group of children who want to raise money to fix their treehouse so they begin selling lemonade. Each day they graph how many they sold. They also teach how to build a bar graph and how to read one for students who are seeing one for the first. The story is easy to follow along and relatable for children.

[Ruth Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a MathStart Level 3 book that is recommended for ages 7 and up. Four friends and a talking parrot team up to earn money for clubhouse repairs. Each day the kids chart their sales in order to keep track of the amount of lemonade sold. At the end of the book there are suggestions for discussion and ideas for further activities.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Elm Street Kids’ Club needs money to repair their clubhouse. So, they decide to sell lemonade. Each kid has a task and the first three days, business booms (just look at the bar graph!) But on Thursday, business plummets. They find out there’s a juggler on the street corner taking away their business. So they ask Jed, the juggler, to join forces.

[Margaret Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to introduce graphing to young students. I read this and I’m going to use this book to introduce graphing to my first grade class as a part of our math unit. It also teaches hard work and that students and children can make their own money to fix things. The illustrations are are so cute as well. I love Petey the parrot.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading with my kid for another book report. This was a good read with the kids, a consistent and to the point story about putting yours head together to solve a problem, working together, and throwing in some math lessons in a funish way for the kids.

[Kendall Evilcizer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so cute and very easy to read. This book teaches a valuable lesson about money. Also, the illustrations and the word choice from this book is very rich. I would recommend this book to anyone. Could be used greatly in a younger classroom.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the artwork in this book. The characters were cute and funny. The book reminded me of the times my friends and I sold punch, and had another group of kids set up a table on a nearby corner. It brought back good memories of childhood.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A group of kids puts together a lemonade stand and works hard to earn enough money from it to repair their clubhouse. Lots of math and graphs to illustrate their goal and progress. Elementry and up

[Cyndi Goodgame · Rating 5 out of 5]

13 years of use on this one. Love it.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Math Concepts, Observation, Inquiry, Project based learning

[Lynaya316 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with plenty of ideas on teaching kids how to write and read bar graphs

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can you please read the story to me and another one

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

ECONOMICS TOPIC :SUPPLY AND DEMAND; PROFIT Grades 2-5 Business was great in the beginning as they had a high demand for their product but as demand decreased so did their profits.

This book is great for a math lesson as well (bar graphs that show how much they sold in the beggining and compare it to what they sold at the end).

[Carman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four friends want to fix up their clubhouse but need money. They open a lemonade stand and use bar graphs to track their sales. This book illustrates basic economics and working for what you want. In class a discussion about different types of graphs and beginning economics could take place. Appropriate for first thru third grade.