Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Hopscotch Girls Presents: Mia Madison, CEO by Kathryn Holmes and Illustrated by Luna Valentine

Hopscotch Girls Presents: Mia Madison, CEO by Kathryn Holmes and Illustrated by Luna Valentine
Publisher:  Andrews McMeel Publishing
Format:  E-ARC
Number of pages:   210 pages
Publishing:   April 30th, 2024
Source:  Publisher

Opening Line: "I'm the only eleven-year-old I know who keeps a handwritten day planner."  

6th grader Mia Madison is known at her school for being a very successful kid-trepreneur, having launched a pet sitting business and a lemonade stand.  Mia hopes that someday she can be like her mom, a CEO of her own company.  During a visit to the park, Mia runs into Liam, a new boy at school who has a side job dog walking.  Liam shares his difficulty managing one of his dogs named Princess, who often escapes while walking the other dogs.  Mia offers to try and devise a solution for Liam's problem, which also inspires her to help her other classmates with their ventures.  Thus, Mia's KidBiz is born, a consulting firm dedicated to troubleshooting, enhancing profits and guiding her classmates in promoting their own business.

Initially, everything is progressing well.  Along with Liam, Mia starts assisting Daphine to determine a price point for her bracelets, and even her best friend, Lillian decides to sell her once anonymous and free comic books at school.  However, juggling three new clients, schoolwork, friendship and her part time cat sitting job quickly becomes an overwhelming challenge.  Will Mia be able to manage all the responsibilities she has taken on before everything starts to unravel?  

Hopscotch Girls is a social enterprise created by a mom who was frustrated by the marketing of pink, princess, and beauty items as gifts for girls.  The goal of the enterprise is to "offer products that will build confidence and self-esteem in girls and combat these harmful stereotypes."  Some of their previous titles include, "I Am Confident Brave and Beautiful, and I Am an Adventurer, Artist and Athlete," which are Sticker and Colorings Books.  Mia Madison, CEO is the first book in their new middle grade series.  

I quite liked Mia's enthusiasm and passion for her businesses.  She dives into her ventures with great energy.  Mia's mom is an immense support, offering advice, sales strategies and even her old textbooks to assist Mia with her clientele.  Mia's determination to make her consulting business a success is very evident, though it sometimes leads her to overcommit and rush her tasks.  Yet, she remained undeterred by her responsibilities or setbacks, instead she sought help when she needed it.  The book introduces financial concepts such as venture, entrepreneur, inventory, reframing and commission, integrating their explanations seamlessly into the narrative for younger reader's ease of comprehension.  Luna Valentine's playful black and white illustrations contribute significantly to the book's charm.  A recurring theme that I picked up from the book is that failure happens, that there will be setbacks, and mistakes, sometimes even more than once.  The key is how you recover from them and move forward.  Mia Madison, CEO will resonate with children interested in entrepreneurship, and I'm eager to see what the series holds in the future. 


**A huge thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read an E-ARC**                           

4 comments:

  1. This sounds very encouraging for youngsters. It should get a get audience. Thanks for your review.

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  2. I love the idea of this series, and love an entrepreneur main character! (Remembering when my kids were always trying to sell things: I think this is a more common aspiration than we might think.)

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  3. How cool! I know so many kids who are interested in having a business, so I feel like this is a great theme for the target age. Thanks for sharing your review! :)

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