The Stock Market (Exploring Business and Economics)

Explains how the stock market works, the risks and rewards of stock ownership, and how stocks are bought and sold.

Reviewed with Terence O'Hara's The Economy.

Gr. 4-7. Two complex subjects are demystified in these entries in the Exploring Business and Economics series. In Economy, O'Hara uses concrete, age-appropriate examples, often from everyday life, to explain concepts in America's free-market economy, such as competition, capitalism, the law of supply and demand. Chapters give readers an idea of business cycles, trends, and how businesses function and cover economic systems used in other countries. Barbash does an equally fine job looking at the stock market and the many factors that influence it, including events in other parts of the world. Familiar terms such as bull market and NASDAQ are explained, and guidelines are given for "careful investors." The chapter relating how stocks are bought and sold is particularly informative. Readers are even encouraged to log on to a financial Web site "to see the bidding process at work each day." Both volumes are succinctly written and attractively designed, with lots of photographs, sidebars, and graphs. Each also has a bibliography. Lauren Peterson
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