Customer Reviews

Million Dollar Shot -Lib

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Million Dollar Shot is about a boy named Eddie. He lives with his mom in a poor trailer park, but one day Eddie sends a poem into a contest hoping to win. One day he gets selected to shoot for 1 million dollars in New York City. He did shoot it and he got 1 million dollars! The ending is very good, but I won't tell you what it was... you'll have to find out yourself. This book is quite funny and entertaining. This book would've gotten 5 stars but it wasn't very long, if it was longer it would've been a spectacular book! No matter what, this book has got to be read!!

The Million Dollar Shot is an excellent book that's very exciting. There was a lot of suspense and every chapter left 'the ball hanging in mid air.' I give this book and it's author five stars!!

The Million Dollar Shot

The Million Dollar Shot is just one of many great sports books by Dan Gutman. Once you pick it up, you will not want to stop. Eddie's mom hates her job, and she does not like her boss at all. He laid her off her job, and she thinks she should get it back. But meanwhile Eddie and Annie are trying to get into this NBA free throw contest in New York City. Annie loves to write poems, and Eddie loves to play basketball. Eddie enters this contest to try to help his mom by getting her job back so that means wining the million dollars, but getting in he has to write a poem and Annie helps him do that. Annie loves to write poems and Eddie loves to play basketball. Eddie and Annie live in the same trailer park so they get to know one another. Annie is a nice friend to send in her own poem. They both like each other really well. They both are really nice to each other. This is just one of great realistic fiction. The conflict in the book is between Eddies mom and her boss/Job, and also between Eddie and wining the million dollars and get his moms Job back. This book is 5th grade and up reading level. Does Eddie Sink the shot that could when him millions? Find out by reading The Million Dollar Shot.

Although this is a book about a boy successful in sports, it is much more in terms of social commentary. Eddie Ball is a young boy living with his mother in a small trailer; since his father died they have been struggling to survive financially. Annie is a young African-American girl whose mother died when she was young so she lives with her father in another trailer. Both parents work for the Finkle snack company, Finkles are high calorie and fat snack foods and it is one of the town's main employers. Annie and Eddie become best friends almost immediately, creating problems between Eddie and his male friends.
The Finkle company holds a contest where young people submit their poems and the winner will be allowed to shoot one foul shot during halftime of the first game of the NBA finals. If the shot is made, the shooter wins a million dollars; a miss and they get nothing more than their expenses for the trip. While Eddie has no talent for poetry, Annie does and she writes a simple poem that Eddie submits under his own name. Eddie wins the contest and he begins preparations for his big chance. Annie's father is a former college basketball star so he becomes Eddie's coach. Both Eddie's and Annie's parents are laid off from their jobs, giving Eddie even more incentive to make the shot.
Eddie goes through some difficult times, the owner of the Finkle Company offers Eddie a bribe to deliberately miss the shot and there is some additional harassment. Through it all, Eddie learns a lot about the need to work for success and he faces the challenge very well. He is thrown off a bit when he sees his mother and Annie's father embracing as he does not want to give up the memory of his father.
The strength of this book is in the social commentary, the simple friendship between Eddie and Annie, the treatment of the interracial romance as just another romance and the dirty tricks of a corporate personality all are problems faced daily in the United States. In this book, they are treated as context to the real story, which allows them to be a significant part of the story, yet be dealt with in a realistic and less intense manner.

I am a student at Waldron Mercy Academy (SJD). The Million Dollar Shot is about a boy named Eddie Ball who lives in a trailer park with his mom. Then he meets a girl named Anne Oakley who looks like a boy and is really good at basketball. Eddie, Anne, Annes dad, and Eddies mom become really good friends. Then his mom's mean boss (Mr. Finkle) has a contest. The way you could win was to write the best poem about Mr. Finkle. Eddie tried his best to write a good poem, but he couldnt. So Anne wrote a great poem for him that won the contest. Annes dad trained him. He made him shoot 500 foul shots a day. Then Mr. Finkle tried to bribe Eddie to miss the shot on purpose, but he didnt listen. Finally it was time for the shot and he. . .
This was a great book. I recommend this book for anybody who likes basketball.

My 8 year old son read this book and loved it. He then asked me to read it out loud to him and his 5 year old sister, and they both loved it. I enjoyed it, too. The story is interesting and the characters are realistic. Dan Gutman does a great job of building the suspense to the climactic moment when the 11 year old narrator takes the million dollar shot during halftime of the NBA finals. (My son was amazed that Mr. Gutman was able to write two whole chapters -- albeit short ones -- focusing on the period of time while the ball was in the air. And we eagerly devoured them. I took the opportunity to point out that this was GOOD WRITING). Along the way Mr. Gutman throws in a few lessons about friendship, loyalty, and the value of hard work. These lessons are easy to take, because the story flows so smoothly. All three of us recommend this book.

Eddie Ball's mom works for the "dessert company" that most everybody works at. One day, Eddie finds out about a contest to win a free-throw shot at half-time in a basketball game. If he makes it, he wins $1,000,000! But then he finds out that they can't have a reletave that works for the company. He can't enter! But soon the company starts laying off workers and his mom gets laid off. He's sad, but he can enter the contest now! He has a friend named Annie who writes a poem, but doesn't want to enter it herself, so Eddie does. And he wins the shot! He has a lot of enemies, though, and they make it very rough for him. Will he make the shot? This book has a very cool ending! I would reccomend this book to anyone, even non-basketball fans!

Eddie Ball has always been good at basketball, but he could never seem to be able to do well under pressure. Eddie is an only child,who is 11 years old , and lives with his mom in a trailer park. His dad died two years ago. One day after school Eddie goes to shoot some hoops when he sees a girl who just moved into the neighborhood. Her name is Annie, and she is pretty good at basketball. After a few weeks they become best friends. Eddie's mom gets fired from her job and now they're out of money. Then Eddie finds out that he just won a poetry contest and now has a chance to make a million dollars. All he has to do is make one free throw.....during half time of the NBA finals in front of a whole stadium of people, and many people watching it on TV across the country . Eddie practices shooting free throws with Annie every day, but when it comes down to the big shot, can Eddie make it under the pressure? This book was very good and interesting. It wasn't that exciting but it was never boring. Sometimes the book repeats itself, but you almost always want to read more.

In the book, "The Million Dollar Shot", a boy named Eddie Ball sends in an entry to a poetry contest but he doesn't win. The prize was a chance to shoot a free throw shot during halftime at the first game of the NBA finals. Although his entry didn't win, Eddie still wins the chance to make the shot for one million dollars. Will he make it? Find out when you read it for yourself. Go to your public library and check it out. It is a great book and I recommend that you read it.

"The Million Dollar Shot," about a boy who can win $1,000,000 for sinking one free throw, offers somewhat greater complexity than many books in which a contest is central. For one thing, there's a real, live, gross but pathetic villain; not everyone is nice. Questions of corruption and bribery arise, as do those of the death of a parent, retribution, and race relations (this last in a rather casual but good manner). The boy's training for his free throw is a great example of discipline, and the dismissal of rap as an art form will please many parents. Without drowning anyone in Dostoevskian depths, the book still offers its young readers a pretty fair amount of stuff to chew on, and will stretch their brains without their even noticing.