Here are my favorite math picture books for teaching about money.
For my other book lists see:
Math Picture Books: Place Value & Operations
Math Picture Books: Geometry & Measurement
Picture Books About Mathematicians
Concept and History of Money
One Cent, Two Cents, Old Cent, New Cent: All About Money is from The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library. It teaches kids about the history of money used in different cultures, from shells, feathers, leather, and jade to metal ingots to coins and paper. It is not a book for teaching value of money or money math but for introducing the idea of how and why money came to be.
The History of Money: From Bartering to Banking has brief humorous chapters and watercolor illustrations. It touches on heavier topics than the Dr. Seuss book including taxation, interest, inflation, and international currency valuation. It is great for older children.
National Geographic Kids Everything Money has sections on the history of money, how money is made/spent/saved, the power of money, and even fun with money (make an origami butterfly from a dollar.) I love the photos of money from around the world since many books only talk about American money. One teacher mentioned in the Amazon reviews that she began her money unit by asking students what questions they had about money, and that almost all of the questions were answered in this book!
DK Eyewitness Books: Money is another great reference book for photographs of historical money and money from different countries.
Buy It! History of Money is a Time for Kids nonfiction reader.
The Shiny Penny is the story of a penny’s journey through different situations. It is about money but more importantly about connections and about how small things can have great value and impact.
Counting Coins and Money
These books are great to use with the Money Bags game.
The Penny Pot from Math Start is a great book for teaching children to count coins. It has life sized coins for kids to count as they follow a story about a face painting booth.
Another book for teaching coin counting is The Coin Counting Book. It has simple rhyming text and large clear photographs of coins for students to count. It also teaches the mathematical relationships of coins and reinforces addition and skip counting.
A Dollar, A Penny, How Much and How Many? is from the Math is CATegorical series. It is a rhyming book with humorous cartoon illustrations. Students learn to count and combine money.
Making Change
Tightwad Tod from Math Matters is the story of a boy whose brother gives him $20 to spend. The bottom of each page has a running tally of the remaining cash, how Tod pays for each item, and the change he receives. The end of the book has three illustrated word problems.
A classic book with a similar theme is Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday. It’s a funny story kids love but it must be said that it is also an old book. Children may not be able to identify with how many things Alexander does with his one dollar! (or with phone booths, bus tokens, etc.)
Spending and Saving
Little Critter: Just Saving My Money is an early reader for younger kids about earning and saving money.
A Boy, A Budget and a Dream is about a boy learning that he has to save money instead of spending it all in order to accomplish his dream.
Saving Like a Sloth and Money Ninja are two math picture books about money that address not only saving and spending but also donating. (If you want to go even further, the author of Money Ninja also wrote a book called Investor Ninja)
