The Million Dollar Shot by Dan Gutman is a great book. The main character is Eddie Ball. He is a nice kid who does nice things for people, including his best friend, Annie Oakely. He also loves basketball. Eddie lives in a trailer park in Louisiana with his mom.

Eddie’s mom works at a place called Finkles (They sell things called Finkles. They are a very unhealthy snack). Finkles is having a poetry contest.  The winner of the contest wins a trip to New York and gets to go to a Knicks game.  The winner gets a chance to sink a foul shot.  If they do, they will get a million dollars, and a lifetime supply of Finkles.  And if the person fails, all they get a life time supply of finkles. Eddie and his mom are very poor and barely get enough money to survive. Eddie wants to help his family and his friend by taking the Million Dollar shot.Unfortunately, Eddie isn’t allowed to enter the compitaion because the rules state that relatives of employees are not allowed to participate in the contest.  Eddie’s mom eventually gets fired from Finkels and Eddie can get in the poetry compitian, but can he win the compitaion!?

One important part of the book is when Eddie and Annie see their parents kissing.  This is important because Eddie gets distracted and starts missing some free throws while he’s practicing for a big day.  Eddie is upset when he sees his mom kissing another man.  Will Eddie calm down before his big moment in the spotlight?!  Find out all this in the book!

I really enjoyed the book because it’s about basketball, and it’s very realistic too. I really liked that Eddie went to a Knicks game in New York because I live in New York and I like the New York Knicks.  I also really liked when Eddie was in the locker room before the big moment all the Knicks players were saying, I hope you sink the shot and other positive comments.  I’d recommend this book to kids 8+ because if they are younger they would only understand why the title is called The Million Dollar Shot, but they wouldn’t understand what happens in the life that Eddie is living. I rate it infinity out of 5 stars.