This book isn't one I'd put on my TBR, but as I've added a Little Free Library, I've been trying to give many/most of the books I pass along a read before I donate them to the LFL. Thus was the case here. I've liked several of Paulsen's other books (The Hatchet series was a favorite with my boys) so I'd picked this up at a thrift store. There wasn't audio available at the library (it was on Audible, but I wasn't going to spend a credit on 80minutes).

This was just super silly ... bordering on, shall I stay, stupid? I know there's a line where adults might roll their eyes and kids might be entertained. Is that the case here?

Whereas the other books I enjoyed (Hatchet series, The Woodsrunner, Harris and Me) all were realistic and believable, this was cartoonish and crazy. 

The original premise is fine, kid gets gifted a small riding lawn mower, gets paid to mow a lawn and is happy he has enough money to repair his bike tube. But then to have dozens of people wanting to hire him immediately (some story of everyone being in the lurch as the last lawn guy ran off with someone's wife). And it was taking the kid two hours to do one lawn? I mow my own, it's not large, but not tiny. I edge and trim. It takes an hour. And I don't have a riding mower. 

And then it got so silly ... a stock broker pays him in stocks (which just happen to have the best return ever) and hooks the kid up with an out of work landscaper, who happens to have many "cousins" ready to work for him, the kid being the boss of this huge lawn care crew.  Throw in a mobster type who wants a cut, and a huge boxer ... whatever.

It was short, I finished it. I'm not even sure if the "lessons" learned (economic expansion, portfolio diversification, law of increasing product demand vs flat production capacity, conflict resolution and its effects on economic policy) are actually something I'd even want children to think about. I think the main thing kids will come away with is "maybe I can earn thousands of dollars in a few weeks too!" and how likely is that?

This says it's part of a series - but it's really a stand alone in my opinion. I don't like when it's called a series when it's not a continuation of the same story.