MILLIONS by Frank Cottrell Boyce

(HarperCollins, 2005)

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.

Discussion Questions

1. How are the brothers Damian and Anthony different, how are they alike?
   (Anthony is a schemer, interested in money and investments)
   (Damian tries to be “excellent.”  He wants to be good and do the right thing so his father won’t go away like his mother)
   (Father also likes to lecture on facts – was a member of a pub quiz team.)
2. Damian’s mother has recently died and he has become obsessed with the lives of the Saints, learning about them, emulating them and even seeing them in visions (or his imagination).  Do you think these visions are real?
   Why do you think Damian loves saints so much?
   (He often asks them if they have seen his mother)
   (He has a need for faith and reassurance)
3. Damian builds his cardboard hermitage to simplify his life (like the saints), but when the money comes flying off the train, his life becomes more complex?
   Do you think it was right/greedy for Damian and Anthony to keep the money?
   (Damian sees the money as a sign from God)
   Anthony has to lie to allot of people including his father, how does Damian feel about his brother’s lying?
4. Damian does try to do well with the money.  (Buys captive birds and let’s them loose, wants to give to the poor, Latter-day saints.)
   Do you think giving money to the poor is a good use of the stolen money?
5. When did they start getting into trouble spending the money?
   They only have 10 pound notes – one girl says “I don’t want a tenner I only want enough to buy glitter pens.”
   Kids in school bribing them – “there was an inflationary environment in school – kids were asking high prices for favors.”
   P. 104 Everyone’s got money but no one’s any richer because everyone just charges more.
6. Poor people have desperate needs – can there ever be enough money to give away? People knowing the boys have money begin to make demands.  The whole town wants a piece
   We thought the money was going to take care of everything, but we ended up taking care of the money.”  “It was like a big baby.”  (p.139).
   Did they ever really enjoy the money?  What about their trip to the toys R US toy store, and the toys they buy?
   P. 141 Anthony says, “The world is crap.  We could have anything in it but everything in it is crap.”  Why does he say this?
7. P. 190.  Anthony finally tells Dad about the money, and at first Dad is going to hand it in, but what makes him change his mind? (The house is trashed.  “They took our Christmas we’ll take their cash.”)  What do you think of his father’s reasons for spending the cash.
   How does the money affect the relationship they have with Dorothy?
8. At the end when Damian has a vision of his mother, she says, “you want things to be good or bad, but things are complicated” (P. 240). The thing to remember is that there’s nearly always enough good to go around.  You just got to have a bit of faith.  If you have faith in people it makes them stronger.  And you have enough to sort out all three of you.”  Why did his mother think Damian has enough faith to sort both Anthony and his father out?
9. Why did Damian burn the money?
10. Read the last paragraph in the book.  “Sometimes money can leave your hand…..” What do you think it means?
11. What would you do with the kind of cash that Damian found?

Caroline Ward
Youth Services Coordinator,
The Ferguson Library,
Stamford, CT