Member Reviews
More Than Money is a thoughtful and very well written guide for upper middle grade through high school students (Lexile 1210) to start to think about and question the concepts of economic and social inequality and how it affects society. Released 13th Sept 2022 by the Annick Press, it's 128 pages and is available in hardcover and paperback formats.
Authors Hadley Dyer and Mitchell Bernard have done a wonderful job taking difficult ideas and breaking them down with graphs and common sense explanations into digestible, understandable concepts. Why are some people poor? Why do some people seem to get richer? How does that inequality relate to questions about ethnicity?
Graphically, it's very well laid out and accessible. Special points of interest are highlighted in colored text boxes. Graphs and charts are colorful and easy to understand (or as easy at it's possible to make them). The illustrations by Paul Gill are fun and appealing and add a lot to the read.
The book is heavily slanted to the USA although there are references and correlations to be drawn for readers from other places. There are some quite advanced social concepts covered in the book, and lots of discussion starters and good questions scattered throughout. The authors have included links to online resources for further learning. There's also an abbreviated glossary and index.
Five stars. This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, classroom use, and home library/reference.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
More Than Money is an engaging and take on the interrelationship between money, class, and ethnicity. It is very American centered, but does include some Canadian and British references. This is not a quick read, and is suitable for MG or upper elementary readers. It is very rich and informative and raises questions that would promote good discussions and questions that challenge popular, albeit incorrect, views on why some people are richer than others.