MG chapter book about kid entrepreneur / hustler (magician?) 1980s

Hi me again!

When I was a kid in the mid-1980s I read a pair of books with remarkably similar themes, I remembered noting at the time. One of them was No Coins, Please by Gordon Korman. What was the other book?

It was not by the same author. The protagonist was also a tween boy. It was set in the real world, contemporary feel iirc. I don't remember if the money making scheme was legit or not. I do think it was a series of events where the kid makes his money, vs one main track.

Waaaait a minute, I think it might have been a traveling kid magician? Does that help?

Frankly, I might be interested in hearing everyone's suggestions for fiction books with kids making money as the primary plot. I can even start us off. The book I am thinking of was not The Toothpaste Millionaire, even though that is one of my favorite books.

Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen has the "kids making money" plot.

Some in the Liar, Liar: The Theory, Practice, and Destructive Properties of Deception series, also by Paulsen, also have that plot.

The Great Brain and sequels seems similar, although definitely older in setting, and the schemes were not restricted to making money.

Hm. I think it was a standalone book and not a sequel, so those three wouldn't fit. The main plot was about making money, so Great Brain wasn't it. Keep trying...!

bump! :-)

I don't know that book, but another like it is Kid Power, by susan Beth Pfeffer. A pre-teen girl starts advertising herself for various jobs (babysitting, dog-walking, etc). She becomes so successful that she starts bringing on other kids as her employees to work the jobs that come in. I read it as a kid and really liked it.

I don't know if this has making money in it at all, as it's been many years since I read it, but for some reason, your description of the rest made me think of The Strange But Wonderful Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon by Jean Robinson. It's a long shot, since I have no idea why it resonanted, but I thought I'd toss it out just in case.

These are cool, thanks for the tips. Gonna bump again, maybe a new set of eyes and brains can figure out the original book :-)

It's not Rent a Third Grader, but you might like that too.

Thanks! I'm enjoying the entrepreneur kid theme. Still want the original book of the traveling kid magician if you can think of it.

bump :-)

The traveling magician theme makes me think of Mr. Mysterious & Company by Sid Fleischman, though it's not contemporary, or Disappearing Act also by Sid Fleischman, though that one was written later than No Coins, Please. Perhaps another one by Fleischman? He was a magician himself, so it's a recurring theme in his works.

Some other "kid entrepreneur" series.
Henry Reed's Big Show by Keith Robertson - not the first in the series.
Alvin Fernald, Master of a Thousand Disguises by Clifford B. Hicks - also not the first, but most similar to magician theme.

Not your book, but The Big Bazoohley by Peter Carey features a kid trying to make money.

touchstone: The Big Bazoohley.

I did try to re-read no coins please, although I couldn’t easily find it. I did reread korman’s other books (and was shocked to realize he’s only a little bit older than me. When you write your first novel at thirteen, I guess that gives you an age advantage!)

I wanted to make sure I was describing the book correctly. I may have been conflated my mystery book with no coins please, with the kid hustler and the magician theme. However, I remain convinced that there was a second book that I read and often re read in those years, that was very similar in theme. Keep the guesses coming!

Been a year, gonna bump again :-)

>17 BookSmith23: Any possibility it's something in the Flat Stanley series? (If I remember correctly, one of the books/plotlines is about him putting on shows with his brother for money).

Also a long shot but The Mad Scientists' Club is an anthology and there are multiple stories about making money for their treasury.

Also, probably published too late (though I'm still suggesting it in case it leads to something), but Lunch Money fits the kid hustler theme to a T.

Or something from the Henry Huggins series, specifically Henry Huggins and the Paper Route?

Sorry for dumping this all on you, but as I was thinking of suggestions, more and more kept coming!

Sid Fleischmann has been mentioned above; I'm wondering if the book might be his autobiography for middle-grade readers, The Abracadabra Kid.