BLUE CHIP KIDS is the result of a father who wanted to teach his 13 year old son Trent about the skills he would need to manage and invest the money he would earn over his lifetime. As any parent knows, kids are overwhelmed with too much to do these days: school, sports, Facebook, texting, video games, TV and on and on. It is hard to find the time for anything new.
Compounding the problem is the undeniable reality that no kid wakes up on a Saturday morning begging their parents to talk to them about financial matters.
Finding nothing that did the job the way he thought it should be done, David Bianchi – a lawyer and an investor who graduated magna cum laude with an economics degree from Tufts University – decided to do it himself. His plan was to “write a few pages” for Trent to read and they would then talk about the topics when he was done. Writing a book was never even considered. The result of his efforts, however, is a book that is just as helpful for parents as it is for their kids. Everyone can learn from it.
David started out by writing about whatever came to mind: from earning, saving and spending money to credit and debit cards, stocks and currencies and much more. By the time he was done he had covered 100 topics; far more than he ever intended.
Everything was written in simple, 7th grade language with 160 kid-friendly illustrations designed to capture Trent's attention and make it more likely that he would actually read what was written. For fun, the final manuscript was then self-published and a few dozen copies were distributed to friends. The reaction was totally unexpected. Everyone loved it. Calls came in for more copies, friends of friends wanted to buy it and emails rolled in with comments like “this should be mandatory reading in every school in America;” “parents will buy this for their kids but secretly read it themselves;” “you need to publish this.”
Wiley was the first and only publisher to review it and agreed that Blue Chip Kids should be published. Everything about the book is designed to make it easy and fun to read and maximize the likelihood that kids will actually like it.
It has larger text than many books, is larger in size than a typical book and has a bright yellow cover to make it easy to find when it is lost in the house.
Each of the 100 topics are short and, along with the illustrations, capture the reader’s attention before they drift off to their iPhone or some other distraction.
It can be picked up at any time and read in any order. Read one topic or ten and then put it down. It is easy to do and (don’t tell the kids) …….. educational. They really will learn a lot about the subject matter.
The best way to use this book is to have your child read 3 or 4 topics at a time and that’s it. When he or she is done spend 10 minutes with them talking about what they just read. You will be surprised by what they retain and how they quickly they grasp the material. Every kid needs to become “money smart” and Blue Chip Kids will help make that happen. Enjoy!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Book and Mini-series Illustrations by Kyle Bianchi
