First Things First

by Kristi Holl

Book Overview

To earn money for camp, Shelly opens a portable garage sale and becomes so successful that to find time for the rest of her life, she has to learn to put first things first. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689312016
• ISBN13: 9780689312014
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Atheneum Books
• Length: 170 Pages
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Being successful can be lonely...

Sixth-grader Shelley Gordon can't wait for summer. After several years as campers at Forest Lake, she and her best friend Anna will finally be in the junior high cabin! But thanks to a few unexpected expenses over the winter, Shelley's parents can't afford to send her to camp this year. Shelley's crestfallen...until she gets the idea of holding a portable garage sale. Shelley gets items her family no longer needs, and combined with items she finds at other garage sales, begins to sell and barter with her classmates. As she slowly begins accumulating money, she finds that she greatly enjoys being a businesswoman. However, there is a price to pay. The more successful Shelley becomes, the less time she has for family, friends and schoolwork. She's devastated when Anna and the Gordons begin making plans without her, but tells herself it's only temporary. Then Shelley runs out of time to complete an important language arts project. Although it's totally against her principles, Shelley decides that - just this once - she'll have to cheat a little bit... Shelley ends up learning the hard way that while it's admirable to have long-term goals, she can't sacrifice all the other areas of her life to achieve them...