Sophie Washington: Lemonade Day by Tonya Duncan Ellis

Sophie Washington: Lemonade Day by Tonya Duncan Ellis
Publisher: Self Published
Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Rated: 4 stars
Review by Rose

When Life Gives You Lemons…Make Lemonade Sixth-grader Sophie Washington and friends learn lessons about entrepreneurship and team work when they sign up for a city-wide, Lemonade Day event. Sophie wants to buy her mother something special for her birthday, but she’s short on cash. Her bestie, Chloe, comes up with the perfect solution. Build their own lemonade stand to raise money at Lemonade Day! The girls add friends Carly and Nathan, and Sophie’s little brother, Cole, to their team, and decide to donate some of their earnings to a local animal shelter to help save stray animals. Things are going great, until the family dog destroys their supplies. They get worse when Sophie tries to impress another boy in their class and upsets Nathan. Can they save their business in time for the event?

What a wonderful new addition to the Sophie Washington series. It’s great fun revisiting the characters from previous books and getting to see them in new adventures. This book featured lessons on learning to get along with each other as well as learning about working together for charity and to earn money for themselves.  This reader was also very interested in learning about Lemonade Day – I had not heard of it before and love the idea!

The book is written in such a way that kids of all ages would enjoy it. The characters come alive and there is enough action and tension from problems that occur to keep everyone’s interest!  It also shows kids how important it is to be careful about what you say and how to choose friends wisely.

Thanks for another great episode, Ms. Ellis!