KidVenture: Twelve Weeks To Midnight Blue

Teach your kids about business and economics in a fun, meaningful way and inspire them to be entrepreneurs. Millions of Americans are small business owners or work at companies, yet there are not many books that explain to kids what business is about, the way there are books for kids about being a firefighter, farmer or astronaut. Beyond basic business concepts, KidVenture shows that character matters in business. The ability to persevere when there are setbacks and being someone who is trustworthy are key ingredients of success.

In Twelve Weeks To Midnight Blue,Chance Sterling launches a pool cleaning business over the summer. Join Chance as he looks for new customers, discovers how much to charge them, takes on a business partner, recruits an employee, deals with difficult clients, and figures out how to make a profit. He has twelve weeks to reach his goal. Will he make it? Only if he takes some chances.

KidVenture stories are business adventures where kids figure out how to market their company, understand risk, and negotiate. Each chapter ends with a challenge, including business decisions, ethical dilemmas and interpersonal conflict for young readers to wrestle with. As the story progresses, the characters track revenue, costs, profit margin, and other key metrics which are explained in simple, fun ways that tie into the story.

"Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue by Steve Searfoss is the first book in a new riveting children's series about a group of kids who start a business over the summer and learn about entrepreneurship along the way. It is a book of exceptional quality that will provoke learning and growth, and foster a desire for success and achievement in children - traits that are much-needed in today's world.

I truly enjoyed this book, author Steve Searfoss expertly combines entertainment with education. Searfoss breaks down concepts like profit margin and the early life of a small business into elements that a child can understand without being overwhelming or overly simplistic. Good business basics and a growth mindset are hard to come by, Searfoss shares these important concepts with our children - the future leaders and entrepreneurs of our world.

Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue also depicts good business sense and good business practices that should be emulated by businesses everywhere. Overall, it is a very good read that presents children with adult concepts and makes them relatable and understandable to kids. I see great potential in this book and the KidVenture series. Get Twelve Weeks to Midnight Bluein your child's room or classroom today!"

- THE LOST CHAPTER BOOK REVIEW

Utterly fun and inspiring... A must-read for all business-minded children.

What begins as a weekend pool cleaning chore for his dad, becomes a full-fledged business for Chance Sterling after he sets his eyes on a stunning bike. With twelve weeks of summer holidays, Chance doesn't have much time to save unless he braces himself and takes some chances. Chance and Addie are likable and spunky, and the unexpected developments feel both dreamy and heartwarming, as the siblings' startup becomes a solid business. The sprightly grayscale illustrations, filled with invention and wit, compliment the story while the accompanied charts and tables explaining business terms such as revenue, costs, profit margin, and other key metrics add to both accessibility and authenticity. The challenging questions at the end of each chapter will inspire young readers to think outside the box while encouraging them to be creative and come up with new ideas. This is a business book, but the meaningful message of hard work, steadfastness, and perseverance lies at its heart. Delightful and insightful, the book deserves to be on all school library shelves.

- THE PRAIRIES BOOK REVIEW

"A boy learns about math and entrepreneurship when he launches a pool-cleaning business.

In this debut middle-grade novel, Chance Sterling has his sights set on earning enough money to buy a new bike. Since his dad pays him $10 a week to clean the family's pool, Chance is looking at months of work before he reaches his goal--and that's if he stops treating himself to ice cream and other indulgences. Chance decides to turn pool cleaning into a business, finding other customers in his neighborhood. He slowly builds his client base, goes into partnership with his sister, Addison--who was thinking of competing with him by starting her own pool-cleaning business,--and stocks up on equipment. Chance runs into problems at every turn, and with his dad's advice, he learns about customer acquisition costs, profit margins, employee management, and lots of math. Although the story follows a coherent plot, it's as much a teaching tool as a novel, with the math shown in detail for each of Chance's calculations (for instance, he determines how much more quickly he will reach his goal after adding a second client). A series of questions at the end of each chapter encourages readers to assess Chance's decision-making ("How would things be different with a partner? What adjustments would you have to make?"). The text itself is also full of teaching moments; Chance's dad explains how to find vendors, calculate profit, and conduct market research. Many of the business developments fit smoothly into the book's plot, like when Chance subcontracts pool-cleaning jobs to his friend Amit and then has a difficult conversation when Amit's performance isn't satisfactory. Searfoss is generally a strong writer, with a talent for revealing Chance's tendency toward melodrama (he refers to himself as an "impoverished ten-year-old" when bemoaning how long it will take to afford the new bike), so readers who pick up the book for lessons in entrepreneurship will find it highly readable.

An entertaining, instructive novel about a kid-driven business."

- KIRKUS REVIEW

"We need more books that celebrate business-owners and entrepreneurs. There is too much demonizing of business in the world. People are yearning for pro-business entertainment and books, but they are incredibly rare because the kind of people who become writers are usually clueless about business. There are almost zero scripted business stories. The great thing about this book is ... you educate both kids and their parents."

- READER REVIEW