Has your child ever asked you where money comes from? Or have you ever thought about where the money in your wallet has been or where it might be going? Well, Dr. Eli Goodman, a Springfield resident and author, has a story for you.
The Adventures of Abe, the $5 Bill, illustrated by Eva Vikman, Angela Martinez and Brenda Beck Fisher, is a fictional story all about the different places a $5 bill could go, and deals with the question of whether the bills you spend are ever the same bills that come back to you. This particular bill, Abe, does he go places!
This $5 bill starts in Washington, D.C., where it is created at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and then goes to different places within the United States, including Nebraska and the east coast. Not only that, but this bill gets to leave the country as well. And young readers will be excited to see the story come full circle with the bill returning to the first place it was spent...Springfield, Illinois. There are a few things about this chapter book (with illustrations throughout) that I think will be attractive to both children and adults alike.
Although it is a fictional story, one of the things that readers will enjoy about this book is the inclusion of interesting facts throughout. For example, in the beginning, we are introduced to Abe's "teammates" and learn whose faces are on everything from the $1 bill to bills that are no longer circulating, like President Grover Cleveland on the $1,000 bill. When there are important places in the story that might require more information, Goodman actually includes the website that provides more background.
Abe gets to go all over the world, and as a reader, you feel like you get to go, too. For each place Abe visits, the author goes into detail describing the surroundings or landmarks that help the reader understand the setting. Abe starts off in Springfield, so young readers would enjoy the surprise of reading a story with a setting right here where they live.
If you answered yes to either of the questions at the beginning of this article, or are in the market for a good story to read with your child for a few nights, then this may be the book for you.
The book is available in hardcover through the author's website, EliGoodmanMD.com, local bookstores or amazon.com.
Deana Metzke is a wife, mom of two, blogger and book lover who is trying her best to raise children who will enjoy reading long after she's gone. She is a literary coach at a Springfield elementary school. You can find her talking about children's books on Twitter at @DMetzke or her blog, raisingreaders.site.
