The Get Rich Quick Club [Library Binding]

Dan Gutman (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

I'm just lying out there in the backyard one night, staring up at the sky. Then suddenly a dollar bill lands on my face. I pick it up. It looks real. I have no idea where it came from.

Then another one falls. And another. I look up and see bills fluttering down from the clouds above me. First they come in flurries, and then it turns into a snowstorm of money.

This is the dazzling tale of five kids who make a pact to earn a million dollars by the end of the summer, led by the clever and daring Gina Tumolo. They come up with a fantastic scheme that involves a photograph of a UFO. Before they are through, they will have their photos in newspapers across the country and even meet face to face with . . . well, you don't think we'll give the story away right here, do you? Look inside and see for yourself what happens!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gutman's (Honus & Me; the Baseball Card Adventures) light, sprightly-paced story introduces a quintet of kids who start a club with the intention of making lots of money—fast. Eleven-year-old narrator Gina ("CEO") believes that money makes the world go around ("My goal is to make my first million by the time I'm a teenager"). She masterminds the club's plan along with Rob, who Gina explains "sees the world differently from other people" and is "probably a genius," Quincy, an Australian girl whose colloquialisms are translated (rather annoyingly) with footnotes at the bottom of the pages; and a pair of eight-year-old twins with a penchant for stretching the truth—very far. After the kids decide against several suggested money-making schemes—marketing microwavable ketchup-filled pillows; writing a rap song ("Rappers make millions of dollars," says one twin)—Rob proposes photographing a phony UFO and selling the picture to the media. The tale grows taller as the twins embellish their UFO story for TV crews and the "sighting" makes national headlines, bringing masses of "UFO nuts" to town. Readers will hardly be surprised when the hoax is revealed, yet Gutman adds an unexpected final twist to this kid-pleasingly over-the-top tale. Ages 8-12.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-5. "Other kids want to be in the Olympics, or they want to become rock stars or presidents. Good for them. I want to be a millionaire." This confession comes from Gina, the wry 11-year-old narrator of Gutman's latest. With help from fellow stockholders, Gina, CEO of the Get Rich Quick Club, cooks up a cockamamy scheme to sell a story about visiting aliens to a tabloid. Gina's deadpan comment when she realizes their staged photo has touched off a nationwide frenzy ("Well, I guess I overestimated the intelligence of the human race") encapsulates the tart, funny thrust of this middle-grade satire, which combines elements of Andrew Clements' Frindle (1996) with the classic UFO scam, War of the Worlds. Some adults may find Gina's Bill Gates worship and the absence of significant consequences for the kids' dishonesty difficult to stomach. No matter; the intended audience will chortle over Gutman's characteristically broad humor, and will appreciate that the lessons about our money-grubbing, media-saturated culture are left implicit. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Library Binding: 128 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (July 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060534419
• ISBN-13: 978-0060534417
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,737,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

This is hard. I'm a pretty regular Jersey guy who spent fifteen years trying to write newspaper articles, magazine articles, screenplays, books for adults, and just about everything else before I discovered the one thing I'm good at--writing fiction for kids. I aim for kids who DON'T like to read, and hopefully the kids who DO like to read will enjoy my stuff too. For all the gory details about me, check out my web site.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Get Rich Quick Club, June 12, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Get Rich Quick Club (Hardcover)

Have you ever wondered about UFO`s or the secret of the universe? Well there is a book with adventuresome kids who experience all of this. This great book is titled The Get Rich Quick Club. This marvelous book is by the famous Dan Gutman.
This book is all about a girl who loves money and who`s role model is Bill Gates who was the richest man in the world. Her name is Gina Tumulo and she made a oath to make her first million dollars by the time she is twelve. The problem is that she is eleven and time is running out. Then one day she goes to the tree behind her house and finds her friends Rob, Quincy, Eddy, and Teddy. They decide to form a club to make a million dollars. Then they decide to snap a phony UFO photo.
I would rate this book 4 out of 5. I would recommend this book for anyone between the ages 7 and eleven. I enjoyed it a lot. I hope you read it.

by Sean

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the get rich quick club, December 19, 2007

By 

Evonne H Kucera "a student" (Normandy Park, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Get Rich Quick Club (Paperback)

Do you want to be a millionaire? This book is called the get rich quick club by Dan gutman. This book is about a group of kids who want to be Millionaires so they try to get a real UFO so they can take a picture of it and gives it to a newspaper reporter so they can be millionaires. But will they be rich? Will they ever get to see a
Real UFO? Well you will have to read this book to find out!
I like this book because it starts with this really weird dream
It is about... you thought I was going to tell you right?
That's why you should read the book to find out. Another
Reason I like this book is because it has this really
Exciting part that you do not want to miss. This book is
A humorous book. I shouldn't tell you anything
Else because I might tell you the secret! I recommend this book
To people who like money. I hope you enjoy this book.
If you read it!

2.0 out of 5 stars poor relationship with money, May 17, 2011

By 

M. Heiss (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Get Rich Quick Club (Paperback)

I'm a mom with a family of boys, and we read a lot. We really liked Dan Gutman's book "Satch and Me." However, in contrast to that book, "The Get Rich Quick Club" is a turn-off.

The lead character in this book, Gina, is an eleven year old who professes to LOVE money. And she wants to get a lot of it. Sooo... she sets out to scam her town, and eventually the entire country. Plenty of adults knowingly help her in her scam, and of course in the end she becomes discredited. Funny ending that plays on "the boy who cried wolf."

It's an entertaining book, but there are some problems with language and ethics:

- comments like "anything fun costs money;"
- calling people "stupid" 20 different ways in Australian slang;
- replacement curse words (dang, darn, heck);
- advice like"If you ever get caught in a lie, don't admit it. Just say, "I forgot;"
- sassing parents.

This is a poor choice, values-wise, of a book for my kids.