How would you spend five million dollars in 30 days? A billionaire’s wallet, a bizarre challenge, and an unlikely friendship send two kids on a wild adventure. From the author of The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl Stacy McNulty.
Felix Rannells and Benji Porter were never supposed to be field-trip partners. Felix is a rule follower. Benji is a rule bender. They’re not friends. And they don’t have anything to talk about. Until . . .
They find a wallet. A wallet that belongs to tech billionaire Laura Friendly. They’re totally going to return it-but not before Benji “borrows” twenty dollars to buy hot dogs. Because twenty dollars is like a penny to a billionaire, right?
But a penny has value. A penny doubled every day for thirty days is $5,368,709.12! So that’s exactly how much money Laura Friendly challenges Felix and Benji to spend. They have thirty days. They can’t tell anyone. And there are LOTS of other rules. But if they succeed, they each get ten million dollars to spend however they want.
Challenge accepted! They rent cool cars, go to Disney World, buy pizza for the whole school-and that’s just the beginning! But money can’t buy everything or fix every problem. And spending it isn’t always as easy and fun as they thought it would be. . . .
Stacy McNulty’s new book Millionaires for the Month asks the question “Could you spend $5 million in a single month?” as middle-schoolers Felix and Benji try their best to answer it. The book is a fun ride through the advantages that money provides but with serious reminders that money can’t provide those things that are most important to us all: family, friendship, kindness, and generosity. It’s a warning against greed and selfishness and peer pressure and dishonesty all wrapped up in a fun kids’ story.
I see being able to do a lot of fun and educational activities with this book. There are potential lessons about legal contracts, budgets and finances, event planning, social media use, and much more here. It would make a great book club book or a whole class/family read-aloud! The icing on the cake is that the McNulty includes some bonus pages in the back with information about the penny challenge and a tipping schedule from the beginning of the story. I like that these are provided and they could definitely be a springboard for more learning.
I enjoyed the boys’ inherent differences, too. Felix and Benji come from very different families and social classes, too, with seemingly different values, at least in a few places. That allows McNulty to pit them against each other in several places throughout the book, providing obstacles and conflict while they (and the reader) learn valuable lessons. Best of all are the great character lessons that are taught throughout the story, especially at the end.
Spoiler alert: this book does contain social diversity. I could have done without that, but I appreciate that McNulty does not try to justify it or push others towards this in the story.
It can be hard to find books that feature middle school-aged boys with sound character and great lessons. Even harder to find ones that are not dumbed down or full of potty humor. This is one of those rare gems. I look forward to using it with book club next year.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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What are your kids reading this month?
