Our cellphones, our clothes, our food: All are everyday things we consider essential, but we seldom think of what and who is involved in making them and getting them into our hands. In Follow Your Stuff, award-winning children’s author Kevin Sylvester and business professor Michael Hlinka team up again, this time to tackle the complex dynamics of the global economy, examining the often-complex journey of ordinary goods from production right to our doorsteps.
Using familiar examples, easy-to-follow charts and graphs, and a big helping of humor, Hlinka and Sylvester introduce young readers to concepts such as relative value and fair wages and how to think critically about our purchasing decisions. Sylvester’s lively illustrations add even more kid-appeal making this sequel to the critically acclaimed Follow Your Money the perfect introduction to socio-economics and an eye-opening essential read for young people.
Follow Your Stuff | Table of Contents
Getting Ready to Go Global! 4
Good Global Question(s) 6
T-shirt? More Like A-to-Z-shirt! 10
A (Cot)ton of Fun 12
Creating Cloth 14
Stitching It Together 16
The Globals Get Their Cut 18
On the Road 20
Closing the Deal 22
Pause for the People 24
In Conclusion and In Your Shirt 26
Puffers and Meds 28
Take a Deep Breath 30
Getting the Raw Materials 32
Making the Medicine 34
Testing and Testing and . . . 36
. . . and Testing and Testing and . . . 38
Big Busine$$ 40
Setting the Price You Pay 42
In Conclusion and In Your Lungs 44
This Very Book 46
Sign on the Dotted Line! 48
Get to Work! 50
Rewriting and Rewriting and Rewriting and . . . 52
Putting It on Paper 54
The Book 56
Growing Global 58
The Bookstore 60
In Conclusion: Between the Covers 62
High Tech 64
Chips Off the Old Block 66
ZAP! 68
Hard Work and Hardware 70
Hard Work and Software 72
Phone Sweet Phone 74
Making the Call 76
In Conclusion: Adding It Up on Your
Calculator App! 78
See the Big Picture? 80
The Picture Is Smudgy 82
Interesting Questions One and Two 84
In Conclusion? Maybe? 86
The Concluding Conclusion—Part One 88
The Concluding Conclusion—Part Two 90
References and Further Reading 92
Index 94
About the Authors 96