Financial consultant Gail Vaz-Oxlade, author of three adult financial planning books, and a popular speaker, knows her subject and audience. The Money Tree Myth is a well-organized guide with straightforward explanations of how money works, what a bank does, and ways to earn, save, and spend money. The frequent repetition of key concepts (you are your child’s earliest and best teacher, so explain what you’re doing; allow your child to try things out and make mistakes; teach that there are consequences to irresponsible choices) is useful for the browser, but rather tedious for the cover-to-cover reader. Vaz-Oxlade offers common-sense advice on how to handle allowances, and how to respond to a child’s demand for expensive designer-name items. She suggests teaching long-term, financially-responsible behaviour through age-appropriate (toddler through teenager) “fun with money” and “money lesson” activities. These are thoughtful exercises that cover topics such as developing a budget, using credit, and making investments. Of course, parents have to know what they’re talking about in order to instruct their children, so this book also serves as a primer for adults. Teenagers are encouraged to read certain chapters on their own. Surprisingly, the author does not recommend any children’s books to support the home study. Eve Drobot’s Money: An Amazing Investigation would have been an obvious choice.

Buyer beware: there are some problems here. I counted more than 25 mistakes of the grammatical/typographical sort. And though the prose is certainly readable, it falls short of the “sparkling, humorous, and fun-to-read style” promised on the back cover. Vaz-Oxlade emphasizes the importance of making informed consumer choices, but her publisher trivializes this advice by a substandard production job.

Still, this book has much to offer those parents prepared to put some effort into their children’s financial education. The author asks readers to send her feedback on using the book, so perhaps we’ll see an updated version in the future.