Millions

Product Information

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide. Get started Close Frank's first book, Millions, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2004 and has been shortlisted for a number of awards, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Award 2004. Millions has also been made into a movie directed by Danny Boyle. Frank's second novel, Framed, was published in September 2005 and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Award and the Guardian Prize. It was made into a BBC feature-length film in 2009. Frank's third novel, Cosmic, was published in June 2008. It was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2008 and the inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize. I have enjoyed every book I have read by Frank Cottrell Boyce. He writes fast moving quirky stories with lots of heart. This book reads like a mad cap comic adventure/mystery/coming of age tale but is also a study in childhood grief and as is usual for this author the father son relationship is central to the plot . Damien's literal take on life, his pure heart, and his obsession with the lives of catholic saints is classic Cottrell Boyce and is both hilarious and poignant. I was looking for a new Christmas set novel to read and Robison Wells recommended this. I've seen the movie, but didn't know that it was a book. Apparently they were written at the same time, as Frank Boyce was originally a screenwriter. Families can talk about some pretty big topics here, including the power and impact of money, economics, and religion. Why are Damian and Anthony's appraoches so different when it comes to their newfound wealth? If you found a million dollars, what would you do with it? Would you use it to help others -- or to help yourself?

The story centres on Dylan Hughes, the only boy left in a small Welsh mountain town called Manod. This is an immensely entertaining book, about the power of art to bring about change and to redeem. As a child I would have read and enjoyed this several times, for the simple adventure once, and then a reread for figuring out the mysteries and puzzles and the how-to of economics, and then a nostalgic reread would have given me a chance to appreciate Damian's obsession and visions. As an adult, I think I want to reread it so I can appreciate the simple adventure, because upon this (first ever) read I was wrapped up in Damian and in his r'ship with his father and brother and couldn't quite fully just enjoy the book, as it was so poignant.I don't read children's fiction very often, but this one was recommended to me so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century.

Millions is about two young brothers who come across millions of pounds and their decisions on what they do with it. There is selflessness and selfishness throughout the story and what is right and wrong becomes tested. We follow Damian and Anthony (brothers) through everything they do with the money before the day when the pound gets changed for the Euro. The conflict in the book is for Damian and Anthony to find a way to get rid of the money in seventeen days because it is in the old form of money and the money system is changing to a new one( Euros). They solve the conflict by Damian saying “what if we find some saints and give some money to them then let’s donate some to the poor”. The next day they try and find where the saints and the poor live, but before they can get to the house where the saints live they see a saint walking past them so they gave him some money from the bag. At the end of the story they were able to change the leftover money at the bank for Euros. 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. I actually listened to the audiobook, which was even more hilarious than the book, due to the great voice of the narrator. (Being American, I wouldn't have been able to imagine the sound of the annoyed protagonist telling his older brother that his cardboard hideout isn't a den, but "an hermitage.")It was a one-in-a-million chance. A bag crammed with cash comes tumbling out of the air and lands right at Damian's feet. Suddenly the Cunningham brothers are rich. Very rich. They can buy anything they want. There's just one problem -- they have only seventeen days to spend all the money before it becomes worthless. And the crooks who stole the cash in the first place are closing in -- fast. He adapted the novel into a screenplay for a 2009 BBC television film. His 2009 novel Cosmic has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Funny, thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining, this outstanding novel was a deserving winner of the 2004 CILIP Carnegie Medal. George is a self-confessed social reject who spends more time with his Warhammer figures than actual people - but when he's given a bottle of aftershave called 'Desirable', women can't resist him! They way Frank Cottrell Boyce describes the events that unfold, to me, seems detached. Even though the novel is written in Damian's perspective, it seems like their is still this barrier between the emotions and what is actually happening. Many good novels are good because of how they make a reader feel. Millions doesn't give me any types of feelings; it's more of a retelling of a story that happened with someone else- like the person telling the story can't show the emotions of the characters because s/he wasn't there and therefore didn't experience it. Other than that I think Millions was well written, and the characters were portrayed in different interesting lights. The author unravelled the mysteries and tied any loose endings very well.