{"product_id":"millionaires-for-the-month-isbn-9780593175286","title":"Millionaires for the Month","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow would \u003ci\u003eyou\u003c\/i\u003e spend five million dollars in 30 days? A billionaire's wallet, a bizarre challenge, and an unlikely friendship send two kids on a wild adventure. From the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Miscalculations of Lightning Girl\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFelix Rannells and Benji Porter were never supposed to be field-trip partners. Felix is a rule follower. Benji is a rule \u003ci\u003ebender.\u003c\/i\u003e They're not friends. And they don't have anything to talk about. Until . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey find a wallet. A wallet that belongs to tech billionaire Laura Friendly. They're totally going to return it-but not before Benji \"borrows\" twenty dollars to buy hot dogs. Because twenty dollars is like a penny to a billionaire, right?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut a penny has value. A penny doubled every day for thirty days is $5,368,709.12! So that's exactly how much money Laura Friendly challenges Felix and Benji to spend. They have thirty days. They can't tell anyone. And there are LOTS of other rules. But if they succeed, they each get ten million dollars to spend however they want.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChallenge accepted! They rent cool cars, go to Disney World, buy pizza for the whole school-and that's just the beginning! But money can't buy everything or fix every problem. And spending it isn't always as easy and fun as they thought it would be. . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs smart as it is entertaining, \u003ci\u003eMillionaires for the Month\u003c\/i\u003e is a thought-provoking story about friendship, privilege, and the value of a penny.“The absorbing spending spree reads like a fun family film, gleefully stuffed with the very opulence it warns against.... \u003cb\u003eCinematic, over-the-top decadence\u003c\/b\u003e, a tense race against time, and lessons on what’s truly valuable.” \u003ci\u003e–Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The realities of middle school are\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003ewell wrought, with crushes and crushing embarrassment alike.... \u003cb\u003eThe final message about money rings true.\u003c\/b\u003e”\u003ci\u003e –Publishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eStacy McAnulty is the author of many books for young readers, including \u003ci\u003eThe Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, The World Ends in April\u003c\/i\u003e, chapter book series The Dino Files and GoldieBlox, and picture books including \u003ci\u003eExcellent Ed,101 Reasons Why I'm NOT Taking a Bath,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBeautiful. \u003c\/i\u003eA former mechanical engineer, Stacy writes about math and science with authority. Visit her online at stacymcanulty.com or follow her on social media at:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwitter: @stacymcanulty\u003cbr\u003eInstagram: StacyMcAnulty\u003cbr\u003eFacebook: StacyMcAnultyAuthorChapter $1\u003cbr\u003e Tuesday, October 26\u003cbr\u003e The seventh-grade teachers of Stirling Middle School did not put any thought into the important task of assign­ing field trip partners. Their poor decision-making had tethered Felix Rannells to Benji Porter for the entire day. When Felix received his assignment at 6:00 a.m., he con­sidered faking an illness—something tough to prove, like a toothache—but his mom had already driven off. And the field trip was to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, a place he’d always wanted to go. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e So instead, Felix climbed the bus steps and took the in­side seat next to Benji. Felix tried to pass the two hours by reading, while Benji tried to entertain everyone by offering to do stupid tricks for money. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “For a dollar, I’ll eat gum from the bottom of the seat.” \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “For a quarter, you can draw on my back with a Sharpie.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “For ten dollars, I’ll moon that tractor-trailer.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Benji wasn’t making much. He earned a buck off Aidan Rozman and a lot of \u003ci\u003eew\u003c\/i\u003es from everyone else.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Ideally, Felix should have been paired with someone who respected rules, like a teacher. Or better yet, no partner at all. He liked to be alone, or maybe he was just used to it. Was there really any difference?\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Benji and Felix knew each other, of course. They were in Ms. Chenoweth’s homeroom, and they both played basketball—Felix, a point guard, and Benji, a center. Benji’s nickname on the court was Barney (not that Felix would ever call him that) because he was the biggest guy out there, and he was always smiling. Benji had wavy brown hair, braces, and zits and would probably grow a mustache before they were out of middle school. And like the purple dinosaur, Benji was kind of awkward.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Hey, buddy.” Benji turned to Felix. “I’ll give \u003ci\u003eyou \u003c\/i\u003ea dollar if you call Ms. Chenoweth ‘Mommy’ for the rest of the day.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Felix shook his head, regretting again not pretending to be sick when he had the chance. Now it was too late.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The bus pulled up in front of the museum, and the stu­dents were reminded to stay with their partners at all times. This resulted in Felix spending the morning as an unwilling participant in a three-hour game of hide-and-seek where he was always the seeker. Benji “accidentally” joined another school’s group. He went into the bathroom—without permission. He even set off an alarm when he tried to duck be­hind a woolly mammoth. And approximately every thirty seconds, Ms. Chenoweth warned Benji (and by association, Felix) to behave.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e By lunch, Felix needed air and a break. Ms. Chenoweth seemed to read his mind, allowing them all to eat across the street in Central Park. \u003ci\u003eThe \u003c\/i\u003eCentral Park—as seen in movies.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e A chaperone handed out the bagged lunches everyone had prepacked. Felix’s contained a peanut butter sandwich and saltine crackers. His mom wouldn’t be going to the grocery store again until the end of the month, so they were out of chips and granola bars. He unwrapped the sandwich and ate the larger half in a matter of seconds.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e But Benji didn’t have a bagged lunch in the cooler. “I forgot it on the counter.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Felix offered him his crackers.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Nah. I’m buying a pretzel.” Benji pulled a wrinkled dol­lar from his jeans and headed toward a food cart.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eYou’re not supposed to, \u003c\/i\u003eFelix thought. The permission slip had clearly stated that students were forbidden to make any purchases.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Felix glanced back at Ms. Chenoweth, who was chatting with the math teacher and not watching Benji’s lunch rebel­lion. Felix sighed and once again followed his partner.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “How much for a pretzel?” Benji asked.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Two dollars.” The pretzel man pointed to the sign. “I’ll give you one. It’s all I got.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Well, then you ain’t got a pretzel.” The man turned his back like he had another customer, which he didn’t.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I guess I’ll starve.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Felix popped the last bite of sandwich into his mouth and was going to toss the plastic wrap when something caught his eye just a foot from the trash can—a red wallet with interlocking gold \u003ci\u003eC\u003c\/i\u003es. Two other kids walked right by it. For a second, he thought about leaving it and letting it be someone else’s responsibility. But he picked it up. The leather was soft and smooth and somehow felt important.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He glanced around the park. No one appeared to be searching for it.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “What’s that?” Benji came up behind him.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Someone’s wallet.” Felix handed it to Benji. If he’d thought about it for even two seconds, he’d have realized this was a mistake.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Benji immediately unzipped it and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Score! Now we have lunch money.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Felix flinched. \u003ci\u003eI’m witnessing a robbery.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Chapter $2\u003cbr\u003e Tuesday, October 26\u003cbr\u003e Until this point, Felix had not been Benji’s ideal field trip partner. He barely talked. He followed \u003ci\u003eevery \u003c\/i\u003erule. And he seemed to be against having any fun. But finding the wallet made up for all that, plus now they weren’t going to starve. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Benji’s stomach growled as if on cue. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Put it back.” Felix pointed at the twenty. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “We’re just borrowing a few bucks. I’ll return it.” Benji dug around in the wallet. “I’ll mail the money to . . .” He froze, staring at the driver’s license in his hand. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Whoa. Look.” Benji held the ID an inch from Felix’s face. “Laura Marie Friendly. Do you know who that is?” \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Felix squinted at the driver’s license. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “She’s a freaking billionaire!” Benji shouted. Laura Friendly was the founder of Friendly Connect, a social media company that parents and grandparents loved. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “This lady is so loaded she’s building her own rocket ship to Mars. And once, she challenged a family to communi­cate using only Friendly Messenger for a week, and then paid them a million dollars.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “That can’t be true,” Felix said.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Whatever. It’s our lucky day. Pretzels on me. No, \u003ci\u003ehot dogs \u003c\/i\u003eon me.” Benji smiled and shoved the wallet into the pocket of his sweatshirt. “Actually, on Laura Friendly.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He walked back to the cart. The pretzel man—who was also a hot dog man—glared at him until Benji held up the twenty.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Two hot dogs, two sodas, and two bags of chips,” Benji ordered.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Anything else?” the hot dog–pretzel man asked.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Stop. We shouldn’t. It’s stealing.” Felix came up behind Benji. The kid made a great tail—like, FBI-level surveillance great.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The man folded his arms and raised his eyebrows.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “It’s borrowing. Not stealing,” Benji said through gritted teeth. “I’ll pay it back. And I’m starving. A boy’s gotta eat.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Well?” the guy asked, growing impatient.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Benji sighed. “Make it one hot dog, one bag of chips, and one soda.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The man began filling the order while Felix stared at the ground like there were secret codes written on the side­walk.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I know you want a hot dog,” Benji whispered. Felix gave him the slightest nod, and Benji clapped him on the back.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “We’re changing our order again. Two of each, and throw in some ice cream bars.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The price came to eighteen dollars, and Benji handed over the bill and said (for the first time in his life), “Keep the change.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e They found a spot on the grass for their picnic. Close enough to the rest of the class not to be considered miss­ing, but far enough away that Ms. Chenoweth couldn’t see their upgraded lunch. Felix didn’t talk as they ate. He scarfed down his food like he was hiding evidence.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I bet Laura Friendly gives us a huge reward,” Benji said as he opened his ice cream bar. “Like a million bucks.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “We need to pay her back and return the wallet.” Felix chewed on his thumbnail. He was a skinny kid with red hair, freckles, and a big forehead. He always looked kind of nervous, but he appeared even shakier than usual.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “She doesn’t need our money.” Benji leaned back on the grassy hill. “I’m going to take the wallet home. Have my parents call her, maybe invite her—”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “No! We need to hand it in now.” Felix’s face was turning the color of the wallet.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “We \u003ci\u003ewill \u003c\/i\u003egive it back, but we have to do it the right way to make sure we get a reward.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Felix jumped to his feet, and for the first time, Benji was forced to be the tail. They dumped their trash, even though Benji still had a few bites of ice cream left. Felix practically ran to their teacher.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Ms. Chenoweth, we found a wallet. It belongs to Laura Friendly.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Benji groaned. No use denying it. Of the two of them, everyone would call Felix the smart and trustworthy one. If it was Benji’s word against Felix’s, Benji wouldn’t stand a chance.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Excuse me?” Ms. Chenoweth said.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Yep.” Benji took out the red wallet. “Her address is in here. Felix and I can take an Uber or a taxi to her place. We’ll be back in an hour. You won’t even miss us.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Hand it over,” Ms. Chenoweth said, not even consider­ing Benji’s suggestion. As she looked through the wallet, her mouth dropped open.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Let’s give it to him.” Felix motioned to a police officer waving kids off the sidewalk and into the park.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Ms. Chenoweth agreed it was the best option—though Benji still thought his taxi idea was better. She escorted the boys to the cop, who wasn’t interested in the wallet until the mention of Laura Friendly’s name.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I’ll make sure this gets returned,” he said.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “You need to tell her \u003ci\u003ewe \u003c\/i\u003efound it. Benji Porter and Felix Rannells. Partners.” Benji threw an arm around Felix’s shoulder, pulling him closer.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Sure thing.” “He’s not going to remember. He’s not going to tell her,” Benji complained to Ms. Chenoweth.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Oh, here.” Ms. Chenoweth sighed. She jotted a mes­sage on a piece of paper and slipped it into the wallet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFound by Felix Rannells and Benji Porter. Students in Julie Chenoweth’s class at Stirling Middle School in Stirling, NY.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “You promise not to take that paper out?” Benji asked.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Yeah, kid.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Benji had no choice but to believe him. And to dream about the inevitable reward. ­","brand":"Yearling","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305369325797,"sku":"NP9780593175286","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593175286.jpg?v=1767732705","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/millionaires-for-the-month-isbn-9780593175286","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}