Financial Literacy & Life Skills

Big Buck & Little Penny

Give, save, spend — one small coin at a time.

Two picture books built on one idea: every coin a child holds can be split three ways. Same three habits, two children, two very different wishes — a dump truck, and a unicorn.

Ages 3–7 English Two picture books Free TadaKit
Get Big Buck Get Little Penny
Big Buck Gives, Saves, and Spends book cover Little Penny Gives, Saves, and Spends book cover

What the books do

a coin, and a choice
1

It starts with a wish

Not a lesson about money — a thing the child actually wants. A dump truck. A unicorn. The rest of the story grows out of wanting it.

2

It splits the coin three ways

Give, save, spend — shown as three small decisions a child can picture, not three words on a chart.

3

It ends with a choice, not a rule

Nobody is told what to do with their money. The child closes the book with a decision to make — which is where the talking starts.

Give · Save · Spend

three habits, one jar each

Give

Sharing some of what you have — and noticing what you were given. It doesn’t have to be money.

Try it: start a kindness jar.

Save

Small amounts, added again and again, until the pile is big enough for the thing you actually want.

Try it: a sticker for every week.

Spend

Stopping to choose. Seeing something isn’t the same as deciding on it — and that pause is the whole skill.

Try it: two things, one choice.

Choose your book

or read them side by side
Big Buck Gives, Saves, and Spends book cover
Buck wants a dump truck

Big Buck

Gives, Saves, and Spends

Buck has his eye on one toy, and not quite enough to buy it. Watching his saving pile grow is where patience turns from a word into something he can see.

Get it on Amazon
Little Penny Gives, Saves, and Spends book cover
Penny wants a unicorn

Little Penny

Gives, Saves, and Spends

Penny’s wish is a different one, and so is her way of getting there — but the three jars are the same. Read both and children notice the pattern themselves.

Get it on Amazon

Both books teach the same three habits and share the same free TadaKit — pick the one whose wish sounds like your child’s, or read them together and compare.

What comes with it

The books, and everything that keeps the habit going

One email unlocks the printable guide — the TadaKit, the videos and the book links are open to everyone.

The TadaKit for these books

My Money City

Three jars to cut out and fill, a weekly savings tracker, and the shop-and-choose game — the same give, save and spend habits the books tell as a story, now in your child’s hands. Free to print.

Open the TadaKit

The author

Mark Goldman

Mark Goldman

Children’s author and business coach. Writer of Big Buck and Little Penny — written in collaboration with Tadatoon.

More about Mark →
For authors & publishers

Your characters, your TadaKit

We build printable kits, guides and activities around a book’s own characters — the way this one was built around Buck and Penny. Same method, your story.

  • For your book
  • For your school or business
  • For your child

More stories to read together