Money Hungry
by Sharon G. Flake
Genre: Juvenile Fiction Sub-Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: Avarice, friendship, priorities, family, class discrimination, racism, urban life, determination
Primary Characters: Rasberry Hill
Secondary Characters: Rasberry's mother; her classmates at school; her friends Mai Kim and Ja'nae; her father (implied); and her neighbors, Check and Shoe.
Awards:
Published August 2007 by Perfection Learning
This is a sweet little story!! In this book, we meet saucy, thirteen-year-old Rasberry Hill. Some time ago, Rasberry's father was busted for drugs, a situation that forced her and her mother out into the streets. Since the two overcame their state of homelessness, Rasberry has been bound and determined not to find herself there again. Thus, she does everything she can think of to scrounge and save any money that she can get her hands on: She sells "discount" (i.e. outdated) holiday candy, does without lunch at school so she can save the funds instead, washes cars, cleans houses, etc. Her peers at school consider Rasberry to be somewhat stingy, a factor that puts a strain on her relationship with her friends at times. She stashes all of her cash in her bedroom; having it makes her feel "safe". Trouble strikes when her mother discovers the stash and believes it to be stolen; in a fit of rage at her daughter's alleged behavior, she throws the money out of their apartment window! Matters are complicated further when the more well-to-do residents of a neighborhood that the Hills were all set to move into complain about the pending arrival of the lower-class mother and daughter.
I would use this book as part of a unit on human equity or perhaps diversity; it would make a good literature circle read so that students could have close discussion with their peers about the book's colorful characters. It would be best suited for a class of upper-elementary grade students.
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