Books like Money Hungry

I started Money Hungry this morning because I read Begging For Change a few weeks/months ago. I wasn't aware at the time that BFC was the sequel to MH. This is an extremely fast book to read. It took me about an hour. I would hand this to a kid that is reluctant to read in a second. I think Flake does a great job of portraying Raspberry and her mother, along with the girls friends. I remember similiar feelings from my young teen years even though I didn't have the same problems as Raspberry has in this book. The description on the back of the book says that "readers will recognize themselves" in the book and that's true. However small the part will be, I think most people will recognize something about themselves. Raspeberry and her mother were homeless at one time and while she knows she's lucky to have a loving mother by her side Raspberry can't forget those bad times. They aren't living in the nicest neightborhood in the world through this book and are both, in their own ways, trying to "fix things". They both go about this in different ways. Raspberry is doing anything for a buck, washing cars, cleaning houses, selling candy and pencils at her school while her mother is going to school and working hard. Raspberry has deep-rooted fears of being homeless again. All in all, I think the author did a pretty good job and I think anything in the target audience age will like this. (A good one to have around in the classroom I think, this and Begging For Change.)