Javi’s Opportunity Manual Soft Cover: A Kid’s Guide to Making Things Happen

Javi has one goal for this upcoming vacation: to go to tennis camp. When her parents tell her the camp is too expensive, Javi learns she can raise the funds by setting up a food cart. Her uncle, Tio Bill, a lawyer who is himself becoming an entrepreneur, helps Javi to reflect on the obstacles she encounters along the way. In the course of her adventure she begins to see the importance of listening, working with others, making clear requests and promises, and overcoming the hurdles that affect any enterprise. In the middle of this, she is struck by her classmate Benji, who is able to enlist help from others in achieving his goals, and begins to wonder what he is doing that she is not. As she reflects on these experiences, Javi writes an ‘Opportunity Manual’ for herself-lessons for how to make opportunity happen. Through her reflections, Javi shows children how language and conversations– the simple and taken-for-granted acts of empathetic listening and active speaking can make opportunity happen.