Lawn Boy Returns

"And here I'd thought telling Kenny and Allen I was rich had been tricky. Wait until Mom and Dad got home and I had to break it to them that my finances were being audited. Or frozen. Or audited and then frozen. Whatever. It was not the kind of news you broke to your parents over the phone; this called for face time when they got back from up north." (page 62, Lawn Boy Returns, Paulsen; Scholastic, 2010)

What happens when a 12 year-old kid gets rich, has a personal stock broker, a lawn mowing business, employees, sponsors a boxer? He gets in trouble with the IRS and inherits mysterious relatives! And then the bad guys come in.

Not too bad for a return book. I enjoyed the fact that this preteen needed to get away and think for awhile. The only place he could do that was if he went off and mowed a few lawns. Does that sound familiar!?! Like father (KQ), like son (TQ).

Quick, fun read. Boys will enjoy this story. Good for discussion about making money, stock markets, personal goals, dreams, interesting family...

Lawn Boy

Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen caught my eye due to the lawn mower on the front cover.

We had our own lawn mover boy, from the age of 2, and he lived, breathed, fixed, used, took apart, followed, inhaled...lawn mowers. The bigger he got the bigger the mowers got. Until he was big enough to dig into the engines of full sized vehicles. Now lawn mowers are relegated to the station of yard tool. Truck and diesel engines rule.

I thought Lawn Boy would be an entertaining story of someone like our own lawn mower boy. It began that way, where the main character was given his grandpa's riding lawn mower for his birthday (hmmm, our lawn boy was given several mowers, good ones, broken ones, ones for parts, ones to fix...).

The boy starts out mowing his own somewhat horrible lawn, and ends up feeling a super connection with the mower. In short order he has entire neighborhoods using his mowing services, builds his own mowing empire complete with assistants, workers, a stock broker - the whole works.

This is a story of a poor family and how they get rich in a unique way. I was more interested in the original word play than the stock market talk, but the book was entertaining.

I think our own lawn mower boy takes the cake, but this book was a good read. Kids in elementary school, boys in particular, will enjoy reading Lawn Boy. Especially if they like mowing lawns and making money.