You guys were so fab and Dawn was such a lovely presence in the schools - I will absolutely be in touch next time I'm in your neck of the woods. The end showed how throughout the whole novel the boys’ went through so much for their money and that showed a lot about how greed can control you. In addition to original scripts, Cottrell Boyce has also adapted novels for the screen and written children's fiction, winning the 2004 Carnegie Medal for his debut, Millions, based on his own screenplay for the film of the same name. Damian thinks it is a gift from God and needs to be spent doing good; Anthony, his brother, prefers to indulge his taste in extravagance and real estate! Of the added stress that the money ends up bringing into his and his brother’s lives, Damian says, “[The bag of cash] was heavy and we were nervous that something would happen to it.

But with only 17 days left before the national currency switches to Euros and the money becomes worthless, this proves to be much more difficult than they had anticipated. Two bothers, Damian and Anthony, are unwittingly caught up in a train robbery during Britain's countdown to join the Euro.

I don’t think I would make any major changes because there wasn’t much wrong with the book however if I had to change something it would be to build suspense and add action because I found the book very bland and not very exciting.

The author also used a lot of symbolism and figurative language throughout the story representing things like family, the boys’ mother and greed among other things. One of the focuses of that obsession has become an interest in saints -- the lives of which populate both his imagination AND several of the key scenes in this book. They’re scared to admit that Dorothy’s lasagna is better because they feel if they do they will lose their old mom. However, the humour is pretty British, so if you don't get British humour you will just find it weird. You guys are such a force for good and I am a passionate supporter of Indie booksellers, so I'm so happy this worked out well (I'd love to know how many books were sold if you have it to hand - it felt like quite a lot!

Your selection was perfect for our children and what really made the difference was your ability to engage with each child, discuss their interests and help them to choose a suitable book based on your extensive knowledge of the books you were selling. DAMIAN’S BROTHER IS DISOBEDIENT AND WASTES MONEY ON RUBBISH AND WHENEVER SOMEONE CATCHES HIM OR GETS SUSPICIOUS, HE SAY’S ,MY “MY MOM IS DEAD” (WHICH IS TRUE) TO GET OUT OF TROUBLE OR TO GET GIFTS. Normally I won't touch a book with a dead parent and sad kids with a 10 foot pole, but this book was worth it.

He was always optimistic and his happiness was very contagious for me as a reader and his personality and point of view for the story was very different from any other first person book I’ve read. I liked the ending because I thought it was very eye opening and that the theme was a very important lesson to learn.A fun story is Millions, with a lot of gentle and very British type humour that in particular my inner child has massively and totally enjoyed reading, but I certainly do wish, or rather my older adult self does wish that Frank Cottrell Boyce would make in particular his three main characters in Millions a bit more developed and nuanced, that Damian were less a goody-goody wanting to give all of the discovered Pounds Sterling to the poor, that his older brother Anthony would be just a trifle less mercenary, less spend-happy, less selfish, and that the father would not be depicted by Boyce as so massively clueless (and in many ways often functioning rather like a plot device, like a textual tool).

This edition of Frank Cottrell-Boyce's Carnegie Medal-winning Millions features fantastic cover artwork from the brilliant Steven Lenton. Because the story is told from the sweetly naive perspective of Damian, it is filled with many silly but poignant observations. It's a bit different from the movie, which made it a surprising ending, and I actually liked the book ending better.And furthermore, and finally, albeit I certainly do kind of wonder if I might be reading just a wee bit too much into and below the surface for Millions, as someone who was closely following the political and economic debates happening both in England and elsewhere in Europe (from around 1990 to 2006) regarding the adoption or not of the Euro and the fiascos this actually ended up creating for many member nations, both that Millions was published in 2004 (when the Euro had only recently been adopted as the common currency on the continent and when there was a very heated and often volatile debate in the UK regarding this) and that the entire (fictitious) scenario of the United Kingdom switching to the Euro is definitely being shown by Frank Cottrell Boyce as really being rather negative, this does definitely make me increasingly consider Millions to be Cottrell Boyce's warning fable against the Euro replacing the British Pound Sterling (and while I definitely think that this is interesting, it is also something I do tend to find more than a bit uncomfortable, as it gives Millions a between the lines political and economic message I as an adult reader find quite annoyingly problematic). When he prays for guidance and a giant bag of money falls out of the sky, he figures God has sent it. THE MAIN THING I DON’T LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK IS BECAUSE THEY DON’T TELL THEIR DAD BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT WILL HAVE 40 % OF IT. Boyce expresses how giving money accumulates to good deeds, which signify rungs on the ladder to heaven, just like the saints on their way to canonization. Damian's obsession with "being excellent" made him an unusual and memorable main character whose circular, well-intentioned and slightly batty attempts to make sense of adult worry-logic and comfort himself with it would resonate with anxious conscientious young readers.