Go-Around Dollar

Every dollar travels from person to person in a different way. Matt finds a dollar on his way home from school and uses it to buy shoelaces from Eric. Eric spends the dollar on bubble gum at the corner store. Jennifer, who happens to be the next customer, receives the dollar as part of her change.

A dollar bill is something we all see and use every day of our lives. But do we know how it's made? The meaning of the symbols that are shown on the front and back of the dollar? How long the average dollar stays in circulation?

In this fascinating and informative book, Barbara Johnston Adams weaves together a fictional narrative about the travels of a single dollar with facts and anecdotes that are sure to delight young readers.

A story describing how a single dollar changes hands, accompanied by facts about the one-dollar bill.

Every dollar travels from person to person in a different way. Matt finds a dollar on his way home from school and uses it to buy shoelaces from Eric. Eric spends the dollar on bubble gum at the corner store. Jennifer, who happens to be the next customer, receives the dollar as part of her change.

A dollar bill is something we all see and use every day of our lives. But do we know how it's made? The meaning of the symbols that are shown on the front and back of the dollar? How long the average dollar stays in circulation?

In this fascinating and informative book, Barbara Johnston Adams weaves together a fictional narrative about the travels of a single dollar with facts and anecdotes that are sure to delight young readers.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3-- Two things are going on at the same time here. One is a story of a one-dollar bill as it is passed from one person to another, eventually ending up in a picture frame as the first dollar earned by a new store; the other is factual information about dollar bills. Each double-page spread includes a blown up picture of a bill (in black and white as required by law). The book concludes with labeled pictures of a dollar bill that explain what the symbols and various numbers mean. The full-color illustrations in the story include people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds; however, the faces have a lifeless, wooden look about them. Nevertheless, Adams provides sound information to help youngsters understand the basics about our paper currency. Use it as a companion volume with lighter fare such as Dollars and Cents for Harriet (Crown, 1988) by Betsy Maestro. --Laura Culberg, Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago

Barbara Johnston Adams has published a number of nonfiction books for children including Winners: Women and the Nobel Prize (under the name Barbara Shiels) and The Picture Life of Bill Cosby, both chosen as the Child Study Association of America's Children's Books of the Year. She lives with her family in Virginia.