Wilma’s Way Home: The Life of Wilma Mankiller

Wilma’s Way Home: The Life of Wilma Mankiller

Author/Illustrator by Doreen RappaportDisney-Hyperion /2019

Presents a picture-book biography of Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Reading level: 5.1
Interest level: 3-6

Economic Concepts:
  • Scarcity
  • Poverty
  • Interdependence
  • Human
  • Capital
  • Productive Resources

Note: Wilma Mankiller will be featured on the new US Mint American Women Quarters Program.


Sloth & Squirrel in a Pickle

Author Cathy Ballou Mealey, Illustrator Kelly CollierKids Can Press/2021

A pair of unlikely friends, decide they would like a new tandem bike find a job packing pickles. Squirrel’s plan to specialize, with him packing the jars and Sloth attaching the labels, backfires. The entrepreneurial friends turn their mistake into a unique business, make a profit, and surpass their goal.

Reading level: 2.0
Interest level: K-3

Economic Concepts
  • Jobs
  • Income
  • Money
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Productive
  • Resources
  • Earning
  • Profit
  • Producers
  • Consumers
  • Opportunity Cost
  • Specialization
  • Production
Sloth & Squirrel in a Pickle

Hurricane

Author/Illustrator John RoccoLittle Brown & Co./2021

After a devastating hurricane, a young boy asks for help rebuilding
the neighborhood dock, his favorite place in the world, but finds that his neighbors need help first.

Reading level: 2.0
Interest level: 4-7

Economic Concepts
  • Benefit
  • Productive Resources
  • Jobs
  • Specialization
  • Interdependence
  • Scarcity
  • Opportunity Cost

Virginia Elementary School Librarians and Teachers:
To learn more about the Reading Makes Cents program including how your school can get a set of these three books and a ton of resources and support, click here. 

Each year the Virginia Council on Economic Education provides comprehensive online resources customized to the three featured books in order to help solidify the concepts and further engage students.

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