First person nonfiction picture books are hard to find. There was I, Fly. And now there’s One Proud Penny.

This charming book, with the narration in the voice of a 1973 penny, imaginatively tells all about the life of a coin. We learn that coins are made in Philadelphia. We see how they are saved and spent (and sometimes lost for a while). The book also delves into the history of the penny and how the material it’s made of us changed over time, and explores the images printed on a penny.

So is this book really nonfiction? The narrating penny tells us about all sorts of its adventures–stuck in a vacuum cleaner, washed in a washing machine and whirled in a dryer, forgotten on the floor of a Wisconsin, lodged under a stamp machine in a post office, and lying next to a busy street–that are all likely for pennies but impossible to attribute to a single coin. So I suppose technically this isn’t nonfiction. But I think it will be read when kids are learning about units of money and will do a lot to help them understand factual information. So maybe it’s not going to be eligible for the Sibert Medal, but it’s going to delight kids in math classes for a long time to come!

And if you’re interested in saving a few pennies, pre-order my book. You can get a discount from my local independent bookstore, and I’ll also send  you a pre-order bonus of a pair of colorful shoelaces and a bookmark. (And if you buy from someone besides BookPeople of Moscow, snap a photo of your receipt and send me an email with the photo and your address and I’ll mail the pre-order bonus off to you, too.

One Proud Penny by Randy Siegel, illustrated by Serge Bloch. (Neal Porter Books: 2017).

Alyson Beecher hosts the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge at kidlitfrenzy.com. Visit there for more great nonfiction picture books!