Bluebonnet

Title: Pass Go and Collect $200: The Real Story of How Monopoly was Invented

Author: Tanya Lee Stone
Illustrator: Steven Salerno
Age group: 6-10 y/o
Awards: Texas Bluebonnet Award 
Genre: Fiction

Summary

This book by Tonya Lee, is a book that gives the backstory to how monopoly came to be. In the book, one can learn that monopoly came from a game invented by a woman named Lizzie Magie. It was called Landlord’s Game before it was even named monopoly. Lizzie Magie patented the game in 1903 and even after getting it patented she kept improving her game. In 1909 she tried to sell her game to a company known as the Parker Brothers game company but they denied her twice. Then came the Great Depression, and this man named Charles Darrow lost his job. While having dinner with two friends, they played a game of Lizzie’s game, and then Charles decided to take the game and make it better. He created the game that we now know as monopoly, and took it to Parker Brothers but was denied. He got a big department store to sell his game, and when it became a hit Parker Brothers signed a contract with Charles. That is when they noticed that Lizzie was the none who had invented the game and Charles just made it better. In the end they paid Lizzie $500 and Charles is the one who made all the money for monopoly.

Evaluation 

The book itself is very interesting, but I do not know if I would use it in class. The reason being because I do not think that it is of much help to the students to know that a board game that some of them might have played was invented by a woman who was given no credit for being the inventor. The book might be good for a read aloud or just to have in a classroom library, but other than that I don’t see myself using it in class. The book could however be used to introduce the concepts of the Great Depression. It could also be used to teach the students about the concept of monopolizing and what it is. The drawings in the book are very colorful and depict the text in a great way. It can be seen that there was a lot of thought and time put into the drawings. The facts in the book and the story overall are good, even I was not aware of the fact that monopoly was pretty much a game invented by a woman, and then improved and changed over time for a man to take the credit. It is a good read if one has played the game of monopoly, because it puts it into a new perspective.