Book Review—Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue

About the Book

Book: Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue
Author: Steve Searfoss
Genre: Fiction
Release date: January 26, 2020

Chance Sterling launches a pool cleaning business over the summer. Join Chance as he looks for new customers, discovers how much to charge them, recruits an employee, deals with difficult clients, and figures out how to make a profit. Oh, and his sister Addie wants in on the action too. Will they learn how to be business partners?  He has twelve weeks to reach his goal. Will he make it? Only if he takes some chances.

KidVenture stories are business adventures where kids figure out how to market their company, understand risk, and negotiate. Each chapter ends with a challenge, including business decisions, ethical dilemmas and interpersonal conflict for young readers to wrestle with. As the story progresses, the characters track revenue, costs, profit margin, and other key metrics which are explained in simple, fun ways that tie into the story.

I am a Christian and a parent. My wife and I pay close attention to the books and media our four children consume, and try to make sure the content is edifying, just as Paul exhorts us in Philippians 4:8. I wanted to write a book that met that standard, and was also fun and engaging. KidVenture teaches kids the importance of hard work, of keeping your word and being trustworthy, and telling the truth, even when it means delivering bad news. As the story progresses, the protagonist understands that business is about more than making money as he appreciates  the responsibility he has to his customers, his employee and his partner. How you treat people matters in tangible ways.

At the center of the story is a strong family. The two main characters are a brother and sister, who engage in their share of sibling rivalry, but also learn how to work together and forgive each other. At key junctures when they face big dilemmas, they turn to their parents for advice. The kids learn a healthy mix of independence, risk taking and learning through trial and error — balanced with knowing when to ask for help. All of this is presented in a way that is not preachy or hokey, but wrapped inside a story full of unexpected plot twists, witty banter and memorable characters.

My Thoughts:

Sometimes when I request a book for review I’m taking a chance because I’ve never read anything by the author, and can’t even preview the book on Amazon. If the book is a children’s book, and looks like it might be good, I often request it anyway. Some of those turn out to be really good—and some don’t. My mom had the chance to read my most recent gamble before I did. What she had to say was quite reassuring—and made me want to read the book myself! She said, “I really liked Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue. It introduces basic business principles in story form—using a 10-year-old entrepreneur—in a sufficiently interesting way to keep me reading! I especially appreciated the involvement of the Dad, and the son’s respect for what he had to say.” Whew! I was relieved to hear this.

I really liked Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue, too. I like the way it clearly explains how businesses work. The importance of treating people nicely and fairly is stressed all the way through. Chance learns the value of honesty. He learns how valuable it is to get along with his sister and listen to his parents. He learns the importance of knowing his math and how math works in real life. He even learns how good it feels to go beyond the call of duty and help someone out! There are a lot of life lessons in this book, beyond just running a business.

All the way through this book, there are pictures of Chance’s calculations and how he worked out what his profits were, and what percentage of his earnings needed to go toward expenses, or what his pay was per hour. Each chapter ends with a dilemma that Chance faced, and a few questions to help children think through what was happening and what Chance should do next. This book is very well-written; I would like my children to read it for themselves! If I have the opportunity to read more books by Steve Searfoss, I will certainly do so!

I received a review copy of this book from CelebrateLit, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

About the Author:

I wrote my first KidVenture book after years of making up stories to teach my kids about business and economics. Whenever they’d ask how something works or why things were a certain way, I would say, “Let’s pretend you have a business that sells…” and off we’d go. What would start as a simple hypothetical to explain a concept would become an adventure spanning several days as my kids would come back with new questions which would spawn more plot twists. Rather than give them quick answers, I tried to create cliffhangers to get them to really think through an idea and make the experience as interactive as possible.

I try to bring that same spirit of fun, curiosity and challenge to each KidVenture book. That’s why every chapter ends with a dilemma and a set of questions. KidVenture books are fun for kids to read alone, and even more fun to read together and discuss. There are plenty of books where kids learn about being doctors and astronauts and firefighters. There are hardly any where they learn what it’s like to run small business. KidVenture is different. The companies the kids start are modest and simple, but the themes are serious and important.

I’m an entrepreneur who has started a half dozen or so businesses and have had my share of failures. My dad was an entrepreneur and as a kid I used to love asking him about his business and learning the ins and outs of what to do and not do. Mistakes make the best stories — and the best lessons. I wanted to write a business book that was realistic, where you get to see the characters stumble and wander and reset, the way entrepreneurs do in real life. Unlike most books and movies where business is portrayed as easy, where all you need is one good idea and the desire to be successful, the characters in KidVenture find that every day brings new problems to solve.

More From Steve:

I am a Christian and a parent. My wife and I pay close attention to the books and media our four children consume, and try to make sure the content is edifying, just as Paul exhorts us in Philippians 4:8. I wanted to write a book that met that standard, and was also fun and engaging. KidVenture teaches kids the importance of hard work, of keeping your word and being trustworthy, and telling the truth, even when it means delivering bad news. As the story progresses, the protagonist understands that business is about more than making money as he appreciates the responsibility he has to his customers, his employee and his partner. How you treat people matters in tangible ways.

At the center of the story is a strong family. The two main characters are a brother and sister, who engage in their share of sibling rivalry, but also learn how to work together and forgive each other. At key junctures when they face big dilemmas, they turn to their parents for advice. The kids learn a healthy mix of independence, risk taking and learning through trial and error — balanced with knowing when to ask for help. All of this is presented in a way that is not preachy or hokey, but wrapped inside a story full of unexpected plot twists, witty banter and memorable characters.

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