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A review by coleycole
Money Hungry by Sharon G. Flake
4.0
Raspberry Hill is Money Hungry. After she and her mother work their way out of homelessness to a house in the projects, Raspberry becomes obsessed with making and hoarding money. She sells pencils, old candy, and even convinces her friends to help her clean a nursing home in order to make enough money to make her feel safe. When her mother discovers Raspberry’s large stash of cash, she throws it out the window, assuming Raspberry had stolen the money. As a result, they get robbed and Raspberry’s mother, thinking the house fundamentally unsafe for them, takes them back to the streets. With the help of friends, they are eventually able to find a safe apartment, and they dream moving into a nice house soon.
Raspberry is a great character; the reader comes to intimately understand that her hunger for money is driven by fear. Her obsession creates rifts between her and her classmates, friends, and eventually her mother, but the reader can recognize that her greed is a reaction to her situation, as opposed to her more affluent friend Zora, who accumulates possessions simply because she is materialistic. Flake does a nice job of creating well-drawn ancillary characters and themes, like rich Zora, who wants her parents to reconcile, and Ja’nae, who lives with her grandparents and sends her erstwhile mother money, hoping to see her again. Flake is also refreshingly comfortable with letting the book finish ambiguously – Raspberry and her mother are left with their hope restored, though they haven’t gotten into their dream home, and a burgeoning relationship between Raspberry’s mother and Zora’s father is not solidified – which is rare in tween lit.
Raspberry is a great character; the reader comes to intimately understand that her hunger for money is driven by fear. Her obsession creates rifts between her and her classmates, friends, and eventually her mother, but the reader can recognize that her greed is a reaction to her situation, as opposed to her more affluent friend Zora, who accumulates possessions simply because she is materialistic. Flake does a nice job of creating well-drawn ancillary characters and themes, like rich Zora, who wants her parents to reconcile, and Ja’nae, who lives with her grandparents and sends her erstwhile mother money, hoping to see her again. Flake is also refreshingly comfortable with letting the book finish ambiguously – Raspberry and her mother are left with their hope restored, though they haven’t gotten into their dream home, and a burgeoning relationship between Raspberry’s mother and Zora’s father is not solidified – which is rare in tween lit.