Financial Literacy Books for Preschoolers and Up

I applaud the early attempts at kids’ books that tried to teach good money management habits, but while some did a great job, many missed the mark. Take the Berenstain bears book  The Trouble with Money which is still a best-seller, and I think it is awful. This review says it best “the messaging is confusing .” The last thing we want to do for our kids is add more confusion about money.  

As we know, culture has changed. Our understanding of how we treat one another and how we honor our differences has come a long way. Unfortunately, some of our bookshelves have not kept up with where we are. We see it all the time. We pick up a book we remember from childhood only to find some messaging that isn’t quite right for the 21st century. Thankfully, the newer books available to our kids have removed and updated the langue and the messaging. Gone are the days of body shaming, toxic masculinity, or gender norms. As a stay-at-home dad, this is very important to my family and me. 

I accidentally introduced some outdated concepts to my son recently when I tried to read the Richest Man in Babylon, one of my all-time favorite books. While I knew the book was not written for children, I knew it was PG with great personal finance lessons. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it past the first few pages when I realized this book was written for a different time. The book still has great potential, and parents could read my revised version to a child, but the original version, like so many of the books we remember, may need to be left in the past.