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Max and The Millions

Book Synopsis

From Costa-shortlisted superstar, a highly anticipated standalone adventure about what happens when you find a tiny, living, breathing civilization on the floor of your school dorm room.

Max is used to spending time alone – it’s difficult to make friends in a big, chaotic school when you’re deaf. He prefers to give his attention to the little things in life . . . like making awesome, detailed replica models.

Then Mr Darrow, the school caretaker and fellow modeller, goes missing. Max must follow his parting instruction: ‘Go to my room. You’ll know what to do.’

There on the floor he finds a pile of sand . . . and in the sand is Mr Darrow’s latest creation . . . a tiny boy, no bigger than a raisin, Luke, Prince of the Blues. And behind the tiny boy . . . millions of others – a thriving, bustling, sprawling civilization!

Our Review Panel says...

An action-packed adventure, imaginatively written with echoes of The Borrowers and Gulliver’s Travels. Ten-year-old Max is singled out for being deaf by a despicable Headmaster who is evil enough to rival the Trunchbull. In order to solve a mystery at his boarding school, Max forms a friendship with another boy – overcoming their challenges and dispelling some assumptions about deafness along the way. The gaggle of five-year-old girls brings humour and slapstick to this heart-warming story. An excellent discussion opener for themes of bullying, friendships, difference and equality: “They were from two different species and they had never spoken the same language, but they were friends. And sometimes that’s all you need to achieve the impossible.”

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