Mystery Pennies by Sigmund Brouwer

Mystery Pennies is book five in the Watch out for Joel! series by Sigmund Brouwer.
It was copyrighted in 2003 and published by Bethany House Publishers. It has 30 pages and is for readers ages 6-8. My three year-old and five-year-old both enjoyed having it read to them.

Ricky, age 13, has a job delivering papers, making 10¢ per house. Joel, age seven, wants to help deliver the papers. Ricky lets him deliver papers for one cent per house. Ricky feels badly when Joel uses all his money to buy Ricky a birthday present. Ricky learns he needs to treat Joel fairly. He decided to do that by giving him 10¢ per house for half of the route.

Sigmund Brouwer writes books that are fun to read. He holds writing camps and classes for more than 10,000 kids every year.

Tammie Lyon/Laurie Lambert Association illustrated the book with realistic drawings of Joel and Ricky delivering newspapers and having fun on Ricky’s birthday.

There are two interesting sections of the book. The one at the beginning talks of Romans 18:9 and how we should think as we read the story if we have acted like Ricky. The section at the end of the book has questions and how we should be fair.

The theme for this book is taken from Romans 18:9 about brotherly love. Ricky was being unfair. We need to remember to hold on to what is good and treat our brothers and sisters fairly. It will make all involved feel good.

I really enjoyed this book. I was glad to see that Ricky started being nice to the animals and sharing his newspaper route. I did not like how Ricky was always telling Joel he was only seven.

I would recommend this book to kids so they can read about what it feels like when things aren’t fair. This book will help remind them to be fair to their siblings and others.