The Lemonade War
At the end of the summer, siblings Evan and Jessie will both start fourth grade. Evan is right on schedule, while his gifted little sister 
Jessie is skipping a grade. The problem is, their school only has one fourth-grade classroom. Evan and Jessie are close, but Evan fears that being in the same class will make it obvious that his little sister is, in some ways, smarter than he is. So while Jessie is looking forward to school starting, Evan is dreading it.
Jessie—brilliant with academics but not so much with social skills – can’t see why Evan would be upset, which just upsets him more. Now, Evan doesn’t want to hang out with Jessie for what’s left of the summer, so he ditches her to set up a lemonade stand with another neighborhood kid. Jessie is hurt, but thinks maybe if she starts her own lemonade stand, she can impress Evan and make him want to hang out with her again.
Instead, the lemonade stands become a fierce competition, which spirals until Evan and Jessie make a bet: whoever earns more money by the end of the summer gets both of their profits. It’s Jessie’s math and business smarts versus Evan’s doggedness and people skills. Who will win? And will Jessie and Evan ever work things out between them, or will their closeness be a casualty of the lemonade war?
This graphic novel adapts the 2007 book The Lemonade War, the first of a series, which garnered a list of awards and positive reviews. Like the original, this adaptation gets its tension and momentum from Evan and Jessie’s sibling rivalry, but also slips in some math and lots of basic economics concepts, all explained in an accessible way for young readers. Jessie calculates profit margins and tries out the value-added tactic of offering free pretzels at her stand; Evan runs afoul of local business regulations when he starts selling lemonade on public property downtown without a license. As they try to out-maneuver each other, Evan and Jessie use business strategies including underselling, advertising, and even franchising.
Jessie and Evan are very different, but both sympathetic and interesting. Thought bubbles provide lots of information on their interior lives, showing readers when there is a miscommunication, something Jessie doesn’t understand, or something Evan thinks but isn’t willing to say. Flashbacks help explain their motivations and illustrate how close the siblings normally are. While no diagnosis is ever mentioned, Jessie seems coded as perhaps being on the autism spectrum: she takes social interactions at face value and is often confused when people are not straightforward, and one page shows her looking at a chart of facial expressions labeled with different emotions.
The art is clear, with a slightly cartoonified realistic style. Panel sizes and layouts vary, adding visual interest. The backgrounds are fairly simple, keeping the focus on the characters and what they are doing – including, occasionally, working out lemonade-related math, which is laid out for readers to see. When a flashback begins, the panel outlines change from having black outlines and sharp corners to brown outlines and rounded corners, and all the colors take on a slightly muted look, like a subtle version of the sepia tone in old photos.
This book has sympathetic characters who feel like real kids. It packs in a lot of kid-friendly economics concepts, but its driving force remains the relationship between Evan and Jessie. Hand it to kids who like realism and good-hearted young characters trying to navigate family and friend conflicts – and to fans of stories about kid entrepreneurs, like the Baby-Sitters Club.
The Lemonade War
By Jacqueline Davoes
Art by Karen De la Vega
Harper Collins Harper Alley, 2025
ISBN: 9780063310384
Company Age Rating:Â 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Easy Readers (5-9), Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
Creator Representation:Â Mexican,
