Billionaire Boy: A book by David Walliams

This book, like other David Walliams books, is amusing enough to encourage even some of the more reluctant children in the Juniors to read. This one particularly inspires children to think about, and discuss, what they would do if they had so much money!

This is one of my favourite Walliams' books, a rather sad story about a father and son missing their mum/wife, living hand to mouth and with handmade birthday gifts, trying to find happiness through wealth, but finding in the end it's their love for each other that's the most important thing. And of course, it's also hilarious - Mr Spud invents a wildly popular new loo roll (Bum Fresh - wet on one side, dry on the other) and he and his son Joe can light £50 notes on fire, they are that rich. Yet Joe isn't happy - he has everything except the one thing he wants... a friend. Insisting he enrol at a regular comprehensive school as just another schoolboy, he is going to discover just what friendship should be, the power of money, and what's important to him. It is also, of course, a very funny story, with a surreally disgusting school cook and her 'bat sick' menu, school bullies that nobody can tell apart (despite one being a girl and one a boy), and lots of wonderful lists. Walliams and Lucas have a ball with the voices in this audio adaptation (unabridged). It's a fantastic story to share with a child - in a classroom or bedroom, talking about buying friendship with money, bullying, love, parents, wanting to be rich - so much to discuss. Now we've read this, my son is keen to watch the BBC adaptation as well, which we will be doing. Just love the idea of this and Walliams' execution of it.

My son loved this. He is 9 and a great independent reader. He found it sad in places but mostly funny

The Billionaire Boy is about a twelve-year-old boy named Joe Spud. Now, from the title we gather that Joe is a billionaire boy. He has everything he could ever want, two crocodiles, a race track, and even a Formula One Race car! That is what he gets for being the richest kid in the entire world however, young Mr. Spud has everything except one thing, a friend. This book is about the drama Joe has to go through to find that one special friend. This book, I would say is recommended for ages 7-years and above but please take note certain topics and words might be inappropriate for children. This book is good to read and will certainly help to increase your child’s vocabulary and use of adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions and verbs. This witty book was written by one of Britain’s best- selling authors, David Walliams. There are 27 chapters in this book which cover young Joe’s life being rich. The book teaches us a moral that even if you are preposterously rich money cannot buy you everything. This is an important lesson for children to learn that there is no greater happiness than that of a loving family and true friends. By Tiffany

With ‘Billionaire Boy’ author David Walliams has produced another children’s book brilliantly combining a hilarious story with a moral message - money can’t buy love and friendship. Schoolboy Joe Spud is spoilt by his immensely rich father and has everything and more - but he doesn’t have friends. Joe resents the way his father attempts to buy favours and resolve all issues by shelling out money, yet his own attempts to forge friendships are little different. There are endearing instances as Joe comes up against bullying and he has to endure unfair punishment - and face horrible school lunches! Narrative is presented in a non-patronising manner with witty dialogue which cleverly embraces catch-phrases, definitions and links to real people and products. The story rattles along but when David Walliams seeks to expose significance or substance he makes use of different fonts to stress various meanings and messages, and throughout there are delightful illustrations. Apart from a few asterisks there is nothing crude about the writing but ‘Billionaire Boy’ can appeal to adults who may pick up subtle nuances - but even with ‘page 3 pin-ups’ they will not find anything smutty - the book is solid excitement and entertainment - and well deserves 5-star rating.

Nice book, and much thicker than I expected so plenty to read. My six year old son prefers this to wind in the willows, which is a bit dry with advanced language. Personally, I plan for my son to read 50% contemporary books such as this, and 50 classic novels such as ‘The Enchanted Wood’ etc. The contemporary books give my son access to the language he would expect, and most likely uses most. But the classics give access to a wider style of writing, and perhaps, a more delightful turn of phrase in many cases with vocabulary not so commonly used today but which is great to learn. This particular book will not have you or your child roll in laughter as it’s more about exaggeration than anything else. But your child will find some statements and phrases rather odd and unexpected, and therefore funny. Overall, not a bad idea to sample a few Books by this author as part of your child’s reading plan, and you can let them pick a few titles themselves based on their own interests.

I must admit the author quite surprised me - never really was much into children's stories for I find them dull and childish (maybe not the biggest issue given the target audience) however, I did enjoy Andersen’s fairy tales for they were beautifully crafted and quite intelligent in their educative message; on the other hand, I was afraid I am going to witness another 'The Elephant and the Balloon' attempt as known from Bernard and Manny! Was I mistaken, indeed! The story is of a bit corny nature (money is nice to have but won't buy you 'that' what you really need) ... but the difference when compared to the tons of similar stories out there is in its presentation - incredibly witty, funny deliverance when you can really feel the author did enjoy writing this one very much as well as you can glimpse at his life optimism and comedian talent behind (the book’s) every line - and surely appreciate it [the talent]. Definitely a good read for children as well as an adult (I am over 30 years old) who enjoy (or are looking for) a good piece of British* literature, easy to read with a heart-warming experience of intelligent structure and philosophical message behind. * I mentioned the above because my not being a native British citizen I am always grateful to be able to peek into various layers of the language, especially one which - unless you have lived in Britain (and went to a school there) - you would not have many chances to experience otherwise. I will definitely read more from the author! P. S. And the way he plays with the language, some words he uses (made up) really makes you happy about every penny spent.

This was great it was beyond brilliant it is funny and heart breaking if you ask me this is the perfect book!📚❤️