Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell
Greenwillow Books
32 pages
ISBN 0-06-443724-8

Summary: In 1914, May really wants to visit her grandmother. Her parents had promised her a trip, but the train ticket costs a full day's work. So her parents "mail" her there, and she rides through the Idaho mountains in the Postal car of the train!

Concept: Opportunity Cost

Definition: When you make a decision, the most valuable alternative you give up is your opportunity cost.

Comprehension Questions:
Describe the family's scarcity situation that required them to make an economic decision.
(They didn't have enough money for May to ride the train to visit her grandma.)

Identify the two services in the story that would allow May to travel to her grandmother's. (passenger train, postal service)

Compare the benefits and costs of each type of travel. (passenger train benefits - comfortable ride, costs - $1.55; postal service-train mail car benefits - $0.53, costs
- not a comfortable ride; May disguising herself as a package)

May could go visit her grandma by passenger train or mail car. When the decision was made for May to be "mailed," what was her opportunity cost? (sending May to visit her grandma by the more comfortable passenger train)

Explain the importance of the job of May's uncle Leonard.
(loaded and sorted mail to be delivered by the train; took care of a very special "package" - May)

Other Concepts: Economic Wants, Services, Money, Scarcity, Consumers, Price

(From KidsEcon Posters©: www.kidseconposters.com)