Title: A Family for Old Mill Farm
Author:  Shutta Crum
Illustrator: Niki Daly
Publisher:  Clarion Books
ISBN:  978-0-618-42846-5
Year:  2007

Concepts:  real estate, services, wants and needs, supply and demand

Review:  A family with another baby on the way needs a new house, but their real estate agent just cannot seem to find the right house.  A lodge on the breezy shore, a ranch house in the dessert, a mountain-top home, none of them can provide the space and setting that the family members know they want.  A raccoon realtor, on the other hand, has no trouble finding a succession of animal families the perfect home on the grounds of Old Mill Farm, an old barn nestled in the woods and hills with a stream running from a nearby pond.  Could Old Mill Farm be the dream home for the people family as well?  With its warm illustrations and parallel story lines, this unique children’s book makes a useful resource for discussing wants and needs, as well as supply and demand, in the context of real estate.

Review by:  Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children