5 Books About Kids Who Run Businesses

Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money, by Emily Jenkins and G. Brian Karas 
The kids in this book remind me of my own stubborn two. It’s the middle of winter, and snow is falling outside. Little Pauline comes up with the idea to set up a lemonade stand. Dad tries to remind her of reality: “Nobody will want cold drinks.” Mom, still in her pajamas, protests too. But Pauline and her brother John-John will not be dissuaded. They buy the supplies and set up their stand. Business is slow, but they manage to earn back almost all of their capital outlay. Once when I told my son I didn’t have the time to help him with a lemonade stand right at that minute, he ignored me, carried a cup of lemonade out on our driveway, held up a sign, and before I realized where he’d gone, he’d sold the cup of lemonade for $5, having no idea what he should charge. Lemonade in Winter shows that if you’re going to become an entrepreneur, the first step is to ignore the naysayers. 

Lemons and Lemonade: A Book About Supply and Demand, by Nancy Loewen and Brian Jensen
If you’d like your kids to know a little bit more about how businesses actually work, Lemons and Lemonade breaks it all down and defines useful terms. Karly opens a lemonade stand, thinking she’ll be rich. After her first successful day, her mom teaches her that she has to subtract the costs of her supplies from her gross profit. Karly sold out of lemonade, so she raises her prices the next day, “testing the market,” as her mom explains. On the third day, a cold snap hits and demand plummets. On Karly’s fourth day, she has competition: her friends have set up a stand across the street. This book illustrates the joys and struggles of running a business.

Firefighter Ted, Artist Ted, and Doctor Ted, by Andrea Beaty and Pascal Lemaitre
If kids are destined to become business owners, they first have to figure out what career they’re passionate about. Nobody is more determined to test out the benefits of various professions than the adorable bear child, Ted. In these hilarious books, no one can dissuade Ted from his chosen path. He pursues each career in rather unorthodox fashion. In Firefighter Ted, he smells burnt toast in the kitchen, and since he can’t find a fire extinguisher, he douses the toast—and his mother—with a spray of whipped cream. At school, Ted takes things to an even further extreme, and his pursuits end with the hysterical warthog Principal Bigham red-faced, soaked with water, and pantless.

The Most Magnificent Thing, by Ashley Spires
If your kid is an avid inventor and tinkerer, The Most Magnificent Thing is the perfect book to inspire a future patent holder. The pig-tailed, unnamed girl who stars in this story decides she’s “going to make the most MAGNIFICENT thing!” She draws blueprints of her mystery device, and “hires an assistant”—her dog. She sets to work outside, building one prototype after another, deciding that each one isn’t quite right. Spires portrays all the phases of the creative process, from excitement to frustration to anger, that leads the girl to the verge of quitting. At this point, “Her assistant suggests a walk.” Returning refreshed, with new insights and inspiration, she finally builds something truly magnificent.

If I Ran the Circus, by Dr. Seuss
The true classic of children’s entrepreneurial literature has to be Dr Seuss’s If I Ran the Circus, in which a boy named Morris McGurk dreams up increasingly outlandish ideas to form his own Circus McGurkus in the vacant lot in the back of old Sneelock’s store. His business plan involves working Mr. Sneelock half to death “doing little odd jobs,” such as selling 500 gallons of pink lemonade. He envisions a variety of fantastical creatures entertaining the crowds under the big top, with the placid Mr. Sneelock allowing himself to be lassoed, serving as a dentist to a ferocious beast, and wrestling the Grizzly-Ghastly, among other feats. As Morris demonstrates, building a big business must begin with a big dream, and a smart concept: delegating the less-desirable jobs to your employee!
What books would you recommend to a young entrepreneur?