My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa M. Mollel is a must read book! In the beginning of the story, the main character goes to the marketplace with his mother. He wonders around the marketplace and sees something really special, but in order to purchase this special item he must save. Thus, the main character decides to accompany his mother to the marketplace to earn money. Each trip he earns more and more money to get closer to his saving goal. In the evenings, he stacks and counts his coins to determine how close he is to his goal. As the story progresses, the reader will learn that the item he wants to buy is both for him and his family. This story ends with kids learning the importance of saving and hard work!

The thoughtful and realistic illustrations by E.B. Lewis allows the reader to visually experience life in an authentic African marketplace. In addition, the illustrator does an amazing job at capturing familial love.

For parents and educators, this book is a tool to teach children about creating saving goals. In addition, parents and educators can use this book to do basic adding and subtracting; it can also be used to do more complex math like multiplication and division.

I love this book because it combines a heartwarming story with math. This is a must have book to the math section of your home or school library.