Book Review: Mr. Sam

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blumenthal, Karen. 2011. MR. SAM: HOW SAM WALTON BUILT WALMART AND BECAME AMERICA’S RICHEST MAN. New York: Viking Juvenile. ISBN 0670011770

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Sam Walton was a remarkable man who pioneered a remarkable business model, creating the biggest and most successful retail chain the world has ever known. In Karen Blumenthal’s Mr. Sam, she takes us through his journey from rags to riches, and everywhere in between, in Mr. Walton’s pursuit of the American Dream. Supplemented by plenty of visuals, including black-and white photos, charts and graphs, and even a silly cartoon or two, Blumenthal sets out to make the world of business accessible and fun for children.

Blumenthal distills Walmart’s business philosophy into terms that are accessible to a young audience, making sense of the corporate world and those that operate it in a way that they can understand. Underneath the somewhat controversial superstore, there is a very human story of American triumph in the face of adversity, one which makes it seem attainable by anyone. Readers are invited to watch Mr. Sam’s Walmart grow from a single Ben Franklin variety store in Arkansas to an entire country of Walmart, reminded all along of the virtues of hard work, determination, and most importantly, a clever business model.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Blumenthal exercises her considerable strength as a writer to craft a narrative that younger readers will easily understand, even when dealing with such complex concepts as business growth and distribution of income. The ample charts provide useful visual aids for readers still learning charts and graphs, and help to make sense of some of the more advanced aspects of a book that, at its core, is about economics as much as it is about people.
Black-and-white shots, interspersed liberally throughout the text, give the history surrounding Walmart a sense of humanity and realism. However, while the book does thoroughly cover Sam Walton’s business pursuits, it is somewhat sparse in information about his life away from work.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
NEW YORK TIMES review: “Smart, funny, full of good stories and telling detail…”
BOOKLIST review: “… compelling reading—particularly for would-be entrepreneurs.”

5. CONNECTIONS
*Invite children to work in groups designing their own businesses, complete with business plans.

*Other works of business-related literature by Blumenthal:
Blumenthal, Karen. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL GUIDE TO STARTING YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE. ISBN 030740708X
Blumenthal, Karen. STEVE JOBS: THE MAN WHO THOUGHT DIFFERENT. ISBN 125001445X.