How Do You Spend?

How Do You Spend? is one of five books in McLeod’s “Moneybunny Book” series which introduces young readers to some concepts of financial literacy. The other four books are: Spend It!, Give It!, Earn It! and Save It!. Essentially, the current book’s contents ask young readers to consider the “whys”or motivations behind their expenditures.

Each spread in How Do You Spend? contains two distinct and separate texts. One runs across the bottom of the pages and follows the pattern, “Today I spent [insert number] carrot[s].” and speaks to the number of carrots Bun spent. The other text, usually found near the top of the pages, also follows a pattern: “Sometimes Bun spends [insert the HOW!]”.

Note that neither wording has described the “what” of Bun’s expenditure. For that information, young readers must turn to McLeod’s delightful cartoonish illustrations. For example, on pages bearing the texts, “Sometimes Bun spends ORDINARY! and “Today I spent 1 carrot”, one page of the spread reveals Bun holding up a blue toothbrush while the opposite page features a toothbrush stand containing five toothbrushes, one of them blue. The next pair of pages carry the texts “Sometimes Bun spends EXCITING! and “Today I spent 20 carrots.” This time, the illustration finds Bun driving a red convertible and looking much more animated than she appeared when holding the boringly mundane toothbrush.

McLeod maintains this pattern of opposites throughout the book as can be seen in another example. The statement, “Sometimes Bun spends on things she NEEDS!”, reveals a rather disgruntled appearing Bun who has just spent five carrots on a safety helmet, but, on the following spread, a now helmet-wearing Bun delightedly rides a scooter, having expended 15 carrots on something she WANTS!.

In a very loose sense, How Do You Spend? can be viewed as a type of counting book because, whatever the number of carrots Bun has spent in a spread, that number of carrots will be found somewhere in McLeod’s illustration.

I suspect that many of the adults who are reading How Do You Spend? to their young charges will find themselves fitting some of their recent purchases into one or more of McLeod’s “hows”.