Millions
Frank Cottrel Boyce
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2004 HarperChildrens
ISBN: 0060733306

A bag full of money, thrown from a speeding train, narrowly misses a boy.

This happens in the dead of night when Damian is hold-up in his “hermitage” at the bottom of his garden, trying to be as excellent as his Dad wished him to be.

Damian says that's how Anthony, his older brother would say the story of the Millions began. Damian disagrees: he wants the story to start with a patron saint. He has a great interest in saints, so much so he's a fount of information from a website where he's harvested everything anyone would ever want to know about those sainted people: when they lived, what they are patrons of, what they did & how they died.

Anyway, back to the Millions, to be exact: £229,370 (pounds sterling that is) which thudded to a stop at Damian's feet like a “big leathery toad”. From the bag with its broken zipper spills out pounds notes, lots & lots of them ... masses of money!

Millions is set in the English Midlands near Manchester, just before the monetary system changed from Pounds to Euros, so Damian & Anthony have less than a fortnight (fourteen nights or two weeks) to spend the stuff before it becomes worthless.

So, what would you do if a million dollars in cash plopped into your life? Get yourself a copy of Millions & find out what these two boys did, & you'll find yourself laughing on every page, & sometimes getting teary-eyed because this isn't a happy-ever-afterwards kind of story ... not exactly.

The money didn't just jump off the train on its own. Someone threw it & they want it back. Then there are the new Mormon neighbors who look like undercover agents; & a woman asking for donations for the poor, & of course, all Damian & Anthony's classmates who are willing to sell or do the oddest things for a handful of bills.

Damian is a strange, observant young lad with a wonderfully naive point of view. He sees visions & talks to saints, & understands rather well the whole point of living a life unattached to material things. He also misses is his Mum fiercely, as do Anthony & their Dad, which makes Millions both a funny & sad adventure, with some interesting ideas about wealth & happiness, just like life.

I could not put it down! An excellent read for ages 8+.
(09/12/04)

Rebecca