The Lemonade War

Davies,   Jacqueline.  The Lemonade War.  NY: Sandpiper, 1997.  Suggested Grade Level: 3-4

Soon-to-be fourth grader, Evan Treski has just received the worst news of the summer. His younger sister, Jessie will be skipping third grade and him in fourth grade and in his class! Nothing could be more horrifying. The two decide to face off in a lemonade war – they each open a lemonade stand, and the winner, the one making the most money by the end of the summer will take all.  The strengths of each are clearly seen, i.e. Evan is people-smart, and he is good at emotions and getting people to work together. Jessie, on the other hand, is mathematically and linguistically smart – she’d not at all good with emotions. Tensions mount and underhanded schemes occur, and all of Evan’s money disappears while he is swimming; but the children are convinced they know who did it. The readers are advised at this point to stay tuned for the second novel.

Davies has presented a creative look at sibling rivalry without dragging her readers through the mud or tearing their hearts out.  Things do become intense between Jessie and Evan, but they are also resolved. For the most part the children work out the own problems, but there are adults looming in the background ready to step in. One of the neatest things about this book which teachers should appreciate is the business-related vocabulary word listed at the beginning of each chapter, broken into syllables, spelled phonetically with diacritical marks – a ready-made vocab list!