Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday
Written by Judith Viorst
Published by Simon & Schuster
Copyright 1980
ISBN: 0689711999

Mitzy Mergenthaler and Eric Tyhurst recommend using the lesson, Every Penny Counts, with this book.

Mitzy's notes...

The book I found with an economic theme is Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, by Judith Viorst. The theme of this book is making decisions, wants, saving, and limited resources. The story follows Alexander, who after receiving a dollar from his aunt and uncle, ends up spending almost all of his money on impulse purchases, and doesn’t have enough left over to save for the walkie-talkies he’s always wanted. This story could easily be used along with the lesson, Every Penny Counts. The objectives of the lesson can be met from using Viorst’s story, and the questions asked in the discussion section of the lesson can be answered from the story.

Eric's comments...

Few children’s books are as blatantly about money as Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz. The prices in the book are way off by our standards, just as the prices in the math book were, but that is pretty easy to look past. The story itself details the money problems of young Alexander, who unlike his brothers Anthony and Nicholas, who have $3.38 and $2.38 respectively, has only bus tokens to his name. On the previous Sunday, their grandparents came and gave them each a dollar. Various family members jokingly suggest ways (choices of sorts) in which Alexander might use his dollar, such as saving it to help pay for college, using it to buy a new face, and burying it in the back yard so that a dollar tree would grow. His mother tells him to save it so he can buy a walkie talkie. Alexander instead uses it up in the following series of transactions. First, he buys 15 cents worth of gum. Second, he loses bets and 15 more cents. Third, he rents a friend’s snake for an hour at a cost of 12 cents. Fourth, he is fined 10 cents by his dad for calling his brothers names. Fifth, he loses 8 cents. Sixth, he pays Anthony 11 cents for eating Anthony’s candy bar. Seventh, he loses 4 cents when Nick does a magic trick to make them disappear but hasn’t learned the trick to make them reappear. Eighth, he is fined 5 cents by his dad for kicking Nick after he lets another insult loose on poor (in more ways than one) Alexander. Last, he spends his final 20 cents on a half-melted candle, a one-eyed bear, and an incomplete pack of cards at a neighbor girl’s garage sale.

Alexander realizes that he now needs money, and unsuccessfully tries a number of ways to get it. He tries to pull a tooth to get 25 cents from the tooth fairy, but fails in his attempt. He looks in telephone booths for forgotten change, but there is none. And he tries bringing nonreturnable bottles to the market, but is unable to exchange them for any money. In the end, he has no money, a deck of cards with a couple missing, a one-eyed bear, a melted candle, and bus tokens (Viorst).

This story clearly illustrates the idea of economic choice, as Alexander chooses to spend his dollar unwisely and ends up with little to show for it. An age-appropriate economics lesson plan that fits very well with this story is “Every Penny Counts,” which focuses on budgeting, choice, competition, consumers, decision making, goods, prices, savings, services, and trade-offs, many of which appear to some degree in the story. In the lesson plan, students learn about the aforementioned concepts by reading stories about Josh, a little boy who wants a pet (among other things) and has to choose what to buy. The lesson further allows students to do an interactive assessment activity to determine whether the decisions kids are making are smart or not, and it also provides them with an extension activity. The lesson also includes a number of suggestions that kids (and adults!) should learn in order to spend money wisely: avoid impulse purchasing, bargain hunt, buy high quality products, use credit sparingly, and reflect on which wants are more important than others (Every Penny Counts).
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