The Startup Squad
by Brian Weisfeld, Nicole C. KearPublished by: Imprint on May 7, 2019
Genres: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Pages: 176
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Girls mean business in a brand-new middle grade series about friendship and entrepreneurship!
All the great leaders had to start somewhere. And Theresa (“Resa” for short) is starting with the lemonade stand competition her teacher assigned to the class—but making it a success is going to be a lot harder than Resa thinks.
The prize: line-skipping tickets to Adventure Central. The competition: Val, Resa's middle school nemesis. And the biggest obstacle to success: Resa's own teammates. Harriet is the class clown, Amelia is the new girl who thinks she knows best, and Didi is Resa's steadfast friend—who doesn't know the first thing about making or selling lemonade. The four of them quickly realize that the recipe for success is tough to perfect—but listening to each other is the first step. And making new friends might be the most important one...
The Startup Squad: Face the Music
by Brian Weisfeld, Nicole C. KearPublished by: Imprint on May 5, 2020
Genres: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Pages: 192
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Harriet’s brothers’ band, the Skinks, are hoping to enter a local battle of the bands. Winning could get them on a reality TV show! But low funds have left them without the right equipment.
The Startup Squad jumps into action! Harriet, Resa, Didi, and Amelia quickly pull together to rebrand the Skinks and sell T-shirts to raise money. It’s a great plan—until everything starts to go wrong. Turns out tracking T-shirt orders, managing money, and watching inventory aren’t easy tasks. The Startup Squad has to focus on each member’s strengths, act like a team, and get their business back into the groove.
The Startup Squad: Party Problems
by Brian Weisfeld, Nicole C. KearPublished by: Imprint on May 4, 2021
Genres: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Pages: 176
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
All four friends in the Startup Squad want to raise money--but when they can't agree on what business to start next, they strike off on their own. Didi's idea seems perfect: making place cards for a wedding.
But after the wedding planner gets sick, Didi finds herself in charge of everything--and then the caterer cancels and the band goes missing! Didi's business is turning from a dream to a disaster. Will the Startup Squad come together in time to save the wedding?
Each book in this middle-grade series by Brian Weisfeld and Nicole C. Kear also features tips for kids starting or running their first businesses, plus a profile of a real-life tween girl CEO.
Content Tags:
Perfect for readers who want:
- STEM books that are fun to read plus teach valuable lessons (without beating readers over the head with them).
- A diverse set of characters that have to learn to overcome their differences and listen to each other.
- Girls killing this entrepreneurship thing.
- Challenges that need to be overcome in creative ways (because businesses aren’t always easy sailing).
- Disagreements and working together and wonderful friendship bonds.
Many thanks to Imprint and Rockstar Book Tours for copies in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Contemporary middle grade isn’t a genre I read a whole lot of, but how could I possibly resist a book series about a group of diverse young female entrepreneurs? I think the kiddos in my library are going to love this series, and I can’t wait to share it!
The Startup Squad is a contemporary story about a diverse group of girls taking on the challenge of entrepreneurship. Follow them through friendship bonds (and struggles!), business successes and failures, and plenty of fun learning.
The books are good for younger middle grade, but they even held my attention. They were quick, enjoyable reads, and I enjoyed that each character had different personalities and different things going on in their lives. I think middle grade readers will be able to see themselves in at least one of the four girls, for sure. The strongest part about this series is the way it presents business lessons in a way that’s easy to understand and digest while also showing young readers that there are plenty of ways they can create businesses of their own.
The Startup Squad, as they dub themselves, is made up of four girls, each with their own characters, and each with something to love about them!
Resa is the natural take-charge born leader of the group … who sometimes needs to remember that part of leading is actually listening to others! She’s got big ideas and a lot of passion and drive, but sometimes forgets what it means to be a friend. Luckily, she’s got friends there to remind her!
Amelia is the newcomer to the group who balances out Resa by being more level-headed. She’s got great ideas and is taking after her journalist mother, but in her own way.
Harriet is the big personality of the group, and with three older brothers, she needs to be. She always dresses in bright colors and is bubbly and gregarious and outgoing. She’s not great at thinking things through or planning ahead, but she brings her own special skills to the group.
Didi is the planner of the group as well as the mediator. She doesn’t like conflict and always tries to smooth things out. That doesn’t mean she plans to let people walk all over her, though! She’s also the artist of the group and dreams of being an artist professionally when she’s older.
Resa rolled her eyes. She whispered to Didi, “If she’s a disaster, I’m never doing anything nice for anyone again.”
“That’s reasonable,” Didi joked.
A series about starting businesses may sound a little boring, but wait, it’s not what you think!
I mean, it sort of is. Yes, businesses. But don’t mistake it: starting businesses is hard. Of course, the girls go into it convinced it’s going to be extremely easy, because why wouldn’t they? Mayhem and mishaps ensue every time as they realize there are plenty of unexpected things that come with any sort of business. Each startup has its own surprises to tackle!
The secondary characters in this are also really fun! There’s a skink (an animal I’d actually never heard of before these books), which Didi is terrified of after an incident in the first book. You’ll meet the wise Eleanor, who works at the ice cream shop and goes to school with Harriet’s older brothers. There’s also Val, who starts as Resa’s nemesis, but there’s clearly more to her than there seems! I’m looking forward to getting to know her more in future books.
“What’s she doing?” whispered Didi to Amelia.
“Math, I think?” Amelia whispered back.
Starting a business is hard, even if it’s “just” a lemonade stand, and not all businesses succeed.
This is probably the thing I love the most about this book: the girls don’t always get a win. Don’t get me wrong, these books absolutely follow the tradition of having a happy ending. But like real life, sometimes the businesses just don’t end up going the way the girls expect, and they have to come to terms with that. The first book is an entrepreneur venture that a lot of us are familiar with: a lemonade stand. I went in thinking, well, how hard can that be? As it turns out, quite tricky! The girls ran into problems I hadn’t even considered, which I loved! It made me think even more critically about all the logistics that go into even simple ventures.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Amelia. “Like your teaching skills.”
Each book ends with some really handy business tips, for young readers who have big dreams of their own they’d like to pursue!
I love the way this series encourages young people to go out on a limb and start their own business. It presents a bunch of different ways entrepreneurship can look, and all of them right. The tips at the end are a really nice summary of the things readers learn in the book, as well as a great way to present some additional learning and takeaways, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if this series inspires some young readers to try making a business of their own.
“Indira,” her mother rebuked her. “Be charitable.”
“I was,” said Didi with her mouth full of English muffin. “I had something way worse to say.”
About Brian Weisfeld
Brian Weisfeld has helped build a number of well-known billion-dollar companies including IMAX Corporation and Coupons.com. He is the Founder and Chief Squad Officer of The Startup Squad, an initiative dedicated to helping girls reach their potential and follow their dreams, whatever their passions. Brian lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and two daughters.
You can check out thestartupsquad.com for more info.
About Nicole C. Kear
Nicole C. Kear lives in New York City with her husband, three firecracker kids and a ridiculously fluffy hamster. She’s the author of The Fix-It Friends chapter book series, as well as middle grade standalone Foreverland.
3 winners will win a finished copies of THE STARTUP SQUAD Series, US Only.
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This sounds like a really cute series!
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Sunday Sundry ~ Vaccine Myths Debunked
It’s super cute!
I saw these floating around a few months ago and love the idea of them! I feel like fans of the Babysitter’s Club might like them too!
Sara recently posted…Great Books for End of the Year Read-Alouds
Yes! I think that’d be the perfect audience for these.