Toby Gold & the Secret Fortune by Craig Everett

"Money is the most dangerous magic."

New Fantasy Novel Teaches Kids about Money

It is widely recognized that the lack of basic financial skills among adults and teens is a serious problem in America and around the world.  A new middle-grade novel by Craig Everett hopes to improve the financial literacy situation for children ages 9 to 15.

Toby Gold and the Secret Fortune is an urban fantasy, where a secret magical world of money and intrigue co-exists with the same everyday world we all know.  Toby grows up in Wallingford, Connecticut, not knowing about this secret society until one day when he discovers secret messages encrypted into the stock ticker “crawl” that moves along the bottom of the screen on the financial news channel.

Toby’s shock only grows worse when he realizes that the secret messages are directed to him!

His unique abilities with math and money have been noticed by the wrong people, and Toby is quickly sucked into a high-stakes life and death financial conspiracy, that he is only able to resolve by using his amazing skills with money.

At 260 pages, the book is fast-paced and entertaining.  It incorporates such financial literacy topics as: saving, banking, entrepreneurship, time value of money, return on investment, and simple financial statements.

“My whole purpose in writing this book is to introduce finance principles to people in an entertaining way using characters with which they can identify,” says author Craig R. Everett, a finance professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.  “Financial literacy is a huge issue now, particularly due to the financial crisis,” Dr. Everett continues.  “There is no silver bullet that instantly endows people with financial literacy, so the best approach is to expose kids to these concepts in as many ways and at as many times as possible…eventually, it will stick.”

Toby Gold and the Secret Fortune will be available in bookstores and online on October 18, 2012.

Author Bio for Craig Everett

 Craig R. Everett was born and raised in Maine, spending his childhood summers digging along the shores of Bar Harbor for buried pirate treasure.  Fortunately, he was able to remain blissfully unaware that pirates seldom, if ever, ventured that far north.  He received his B.A. in Economics from Tufts University, an MBA from George Mason University, and a Ph.D. in Finance from Purdue University.

Dr. Everett is currently a finance professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, where he teaches corporate and entrepreneurial finance. Dr. Everett also volunteers in public schools teaching financial literacy principles. 

To check out more about the book go to:
http://tobygold.com/

You can learn more about him at his website:
http://craigeverett.com/index.html

You can check out his blog tour at:
http://rachellewrites.blogspot.com/p/blog-tours.html

Best Wishes on the book launch Craig!