Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce

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This is a novel for kids 8 and up, supposedly, though it seems too mature for that young. I really liked it. The main character is obsessed with Catholic Saints and being good, and sometimes he sees and talks to them. There's also a bizarre portrayal of Mormons in their neighborhood (the kid's intrigued, because they're Latter-day Saints, you know), which makes me really wonder if the author has met some LDS missionaries who were kind of odd. Or maybe he just made it up. Or maybe missionaries in England go by their first names (all Biblical) and live in suburban homes in threesomes eschewing material possessions.

There's a very good movie version of this, too, but it also may be too mature for young kids. We watched it with ours, but it won't be one of those that gets oft-repeated viewings.

Comments

  1. Ezekiel GraveSunday, September 10, 2006 1:27:00 PM

    I verily adored the movie version of this and had no idea it began life as a novel. Was the movie fairly accurate to the novel?

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  2. ErinMonday, September 11, 2006 11:01:00 PM

    Yep, I loved the movie, too, and didn't know about the novel until I glimpsed it at our tiny local library. The author is a screenwriter and apparently wrote the novel from the screenplay. (Normally I am dead set against novelizations of movies--they are almost always a complete waste of time--but this one was entertaining and well-written). Also, he has seven kids. The book and movie have a few differences but are mostly similar to each other. In the book, the older kid (Anthony, I think?) is convinced that Dorothy is the leader of the bank robbers and trying to get the money back, and I don't remember that in the movie. Some other differences, too, but nothing too blaring. Now you've got me wondering if I would have liked the book as much if I hadn't seen and liked the movie first. I don't know how Damien's conversations with the Saints would have seemed if I hadn't had the movie's images in my brain. Well, I made a bunch of women read this for a book club, so I'm sure they'll tell me if they have complaints.

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