Toby Gold is a seventh grader in Wallingford, Connecticut who has always known that he is good with money – but has no idea how good until he discovers a dangerous hidden society of money and intrigue that co-exists with the everyday world we all know.
Toby stumbles upon this dark financial world one day when he discovers secret messages encrypted into the stock ticker “crawl” that moves along the bottom of the screen on the financial news channel.
Toby’s shock only grows worse when he realizes that the secret messages are directed to him! His unique abilities with math and money have been noticed by the wrong people, and Toby is quickly sucked into a high-stakes life or death financial conspiracy that he is only able to resolve by using his amazing talent with money.
Goodreads Summary
Want to learn about finance and be entertained at the same time? Toby Gold and the Secret Fortune is able to provide the reader with basic financial literacy and entice the reader into a fantasy world. The book jumps right into action with a killer in the very first pages. Fast-forwarding years, the reader meets the older Toby. Most readers will find it hard to dislike Toby at all; he has had a very rough time in his short life and the foster family he is currently placed with can be abusive. His love for math starts getting him in trouble… people want to use his mind for wrong reasons, and Toby ends up with life or death situations.
I found this book to be fascinating! Personally, I stink at math and don’t read or watch the stock market, so I thought this book would be hard to understand for me. It’s aimed for children 9-15, so I figured it really couldn’t be THAT confusing. I was completely right, everything was explained in fine detail and I learned so much from it. You definitely read life lessons, which is surprising to me. I think a nine year old will somewhat get an understanding of what the author is portraying, but will not fully grasp the concept. It’s one of those books where the older you are the more you appreciate it.
The characters were also entertaining to read. None of them fell flat, I really felt every emotion they were feeling. I related to them, which sometimes doesn’t happen in a story for 9-15 year olds. Being in Toby's shoes is heartbreaking, and you just want to hug him.
The book also moved at a nice pace, so nothing was too slow or fast. Everett made room for a sequel or trilogy, which I’m very excited about. I recommend this to anyone… it really doesn’t matter what age you are, you’ll learn something from it.
5 Stars
*Reviewed by Rachel*
Find this book:
Amazon
This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.
Posts
This sounds interesting. I will have to give it a try.