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Capitalism for Kids, by Karl Hess (Wilmington, Del.: Enterprise Publishing, 247 pp., $9.95 paper), evokes visions of lemonade stands and candy sales. But this is much more than a how-to for would-be entrepreneurs. It is a primer in political economy that shows the values behind capitalism. Above all, this is a book about individual responsibility and self-respect, about children learning to make their own choices.
One child's choices make a compelling real-life tale in Freedom's Child, by Walter Polovchak with Kevin Klose (New York: Random House, 246 pp., $17.95). Polovchak, who had come to the United States with his parents, chose to remain behind when his mother and father abruptly decided to return to the Soviet Union. Polovchak's saga is a compelling tale of a boy determined to battle the courts, the KGB, the ACLU, Soviet and American officials, and his parents so that he might stay in America.
Political turbulence often inspires good literature, and Lu Wenfu's The Gourmet, and Other Stories of Modern China (London: Readers International, 243 pp., $16.95/8.95, distr. by Persea) is just that—a potent, lyrical collection of tales by a Chinese author who grapples with China's political upheavals and current struggles between socialism and capitalism.