Millionaires For the Month by Stacy McAnulty
The Hook:
On a class field trip to New York City, Felix and Benji find a wallet belonging to a billionaire. They swipe $20 from it before they give it back to the owner. Afterall, the owner is a billionaire. She is not even going to notice a missing 20-dollar bill, right? Well, she does. And she is mad.
To teach them a lesson, she offers them $5 million in cash—but with strings attached. The boys must spend all the money in 30 days. They cannot give any of it away, invest it, and they cannot tell anyone about it. If they can spend it all within the 30 days they will each receive $10 million.
So, the boys go off on a WILD spending spree. Sounds awesome, right? Well, it doesn’t go quite as planned. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens.
This book is in our library. It is also in Sora and Axis 360 as an eBook as well as an audio book. It is 8 AR points.
My Thoughts and Recommendations (Careful! There May Be Spoilers):
This is a super hilarious read that I think most 4th-7th graders will enjoy. At first, it’s all fun. The boys hire a fabulous, philosophic college student as their chauffeur who pilots them all around the city while providing words of wisdom and guidance. They book hotel suites, fly their families by private jet to Disney World, and buy all kinds of in-app games. But as the story unfolds, the boys become more selfish and irresponsible. They are both seen as “selfish jerks” by friends and family alike and the two find themselves longing for simpler times.
This is a fun book in that it is told in alternating perspectives—First Benji a loud, chaotic sort of boy and then Felix who is very shy and reserved. It was Benji who took the $20 from the wallet in the first place, while Felix reluctantly went along with it. It is extra enjoyable to hear each other’s first-person perspectives as the story goes along.
I did question if the boys really were that upset about having to spend all the money. Wishing to go back to how it was before without the money was a little unbelievable to me. But I still thought it was great fun.
I recommend this book for 4th-6th graders. 4.2 stars.
