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The Business Guinea PigsA FLITCH brand
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The Books

The Business Guinea Pigs: all volumes

Each volume tackles one big economics topic through an everyday story and can be read on its own. Bilingual: every paragraph appears in German, with the English right below it, so kids can read in English and pick up German along the way. For kids ages 10 and up, as a paperback and Kindle eBook on Amazon.

Good to know: every book in the series is bilingual. Each paragraph is printed in German, with the English right below it, so kids can enjoy the story in English and pick up German along the way.

Cover: The Business Guinea Pigs Volume 1, Wer kassiert mit? (Who Takes a Cut?) Children’s book about taxes for ages 10+Volume 1 · TaxesWer kassiert mit? (Who Takes a Cut?)

Why taxes exist, who takes a cut and where the money goes.

Cover: The Business Guinea Pigs Volume 2, The Lazy Supplier. Children’s book about contracts and consumer rights for ages 10+Volume 2 · Contracts and consumer rightsThe Lazy Supplier

What is a contract? What rights do buyers have?

Cover: The Business Guinea Pigs Volume 3, Rocky Becomes the Boss! Children’s book about starting a company, revenue and profit for ages 10+Volume 3 · Starting a companyRocky Becomes the Boss!

Ideas, costs, revenue, profit and responsibility.

Cover: The Business Guinea Pigs Volume 4, Why Is So Little Left? Children’s book about wages, gross and net pay for ages 10+Volume 4 · Wages, gross and net payWhy Is So Little Left?

Wages, taxes, social insurance and what an employee really costs.

Cover: The Business Guinea Pigs Volume 5, Everything Costs More! Children’s book about inflation, purchasing power and prices for ages 10+Volume 5 · InflationEverything Costs More!

Why prices go up and the same money buys less later on.

Cover: The Business Guinea Pigs Volume 6, Rocky Buys a Share. Children’s book about shares, the stock market and co-ownership for ages 10+Volume 6 · Shares and the stock marketRocky Buys a Share

What a share is, how a share price comes about and why being a co-owner doesn’t make you the boss.

What’s next

Ten volumes are planned

The knowledge builds from book to book, and every volume ends with a question that the next one answers.

  • Volume 7The Carrot BankSaving, interest and loans
  • Volume 8No Borders!The euro and the EU
  • Volume 9Who Decided That?Democracy
  • Volume 10Rocky Saves the DayWhen the system starts to wobble
How every book works

First the story, then the knowledge

The kids run into something in everyday life that they don’t understand. Back home, they feed the guinea pigs and tell them what happened. And the guinea pigs explain, each in their own way: Rocky with a show, Mr. Grey with history, Toffy with the fairness question, Mojito with the catch.

At the back of every volume: the Business Guinea Pigs’ dictionary in German and English, the most important lines, character profiles, math problems to work through starting with Volume 4, and always a word to parents.

Mr. Grey, lost in a story

Frequently asked questions about the series

What are the Business Guinea Pigs?

The Business Guinea Pigs is a children’s book series about economics, money and financial literacy by Daria Helck, published by FLITCH UG. The kids Daria and Christian and the four guinea pigs Rocky, Mr. Grey, Toffy and Mojito have adventures involving taxes, contracts, companies, wages, inflation and shares. The books explain how these things fit together in a kid-friendly, funny way, without reading like a textbook.

What age are the Business Guinea Pigs books for?

For kids ages 10 and up, so roughly from fifth grade on. Nobody needs to know anything about economics or finance beforehand. The series is a great fit for curious kids who want to know why everyday things work the way they do.

What do kids learn from the Business Guinea Pigs?

The volumes published so far cover taxes, contracts and consumer rights, costs, revenue and profit, how an idea becomes a company, gross and net pay, social insurance, inflation and purchasing power, and shares and the stock market. Saving, interest and loans, the euro and the EU, and democracy are also planned. The focus isn’t on memorizing terms: the kids live through a story first and then discover the economics behind it.

Are the Business Guinea Pigs a financial guide for kids?

No. The Business Guinea Pigs are educational storybooks, not investment, tax or legal advice. The economic and legal ideas are deliberately simplified for kids, so they can understand the basic mechanics.

Are the Business Guinea Pigs books bilingual?

Yes. Every paragraph appears in German first, with the English right below it. Kids who read the story in German pick up the English words and phrases along the way, and kids who read it in English can pick up German as they go. Each volume also has a dictionary of the most important terms in both languages.

Do you have to read the Business Guinea Pigs in order?

No. Each volume covers its own main topic and can be read on its own. If you read the books in order, you get to watch Daria, Christian and the four guinea pigs grow and you’ll spot lots of links to earlier adventures.

Are the Business Guinea Pigs real?

Yes. Rocky, Mr. Grey, Toffy and Mojito are based on real guinea pigs who live with the author’s family. And the kids Daria and Christian share their names with FLITCH’s founders, Daria and Christian Helck.

Can the Business Guinea Pigs be used in school?

Yes, as an extra. The books are deliberately not textbooks or workbooks, but they explain the key terms within an ongoing story, in German and English. That makes them good supplementary reading on taxes, consumer rights, starting a business, wages, inflation or shares, in economics class as well as in language class.

Where can you buy the Business Guinea Pigs?

All published volumes are available on Amazon as paperbacks and Kindle eBooks. The printables, such as Die Schweinchenkasse, an allowance planner (€6.90), and the coloring book (€4.90), both in German, are for sale in the shop at flitch.fun and on Etsy; individual worksheets and two coloring pages are free in the FLITCH Club. This website itself doesn’t sell anything.