Mr. Chickee's Funny Money

by Christopher Paul Curtis

Book Overview

Mr. Chickee, the genial blind man in the neighborhood, gives 9-year-old Steven a mysterious bill with 15 zeros on it and the image of a familiar but startling face. Could it be a quadrillion dollar... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385327722
• ISBN13: 9780385327725
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
• Length: 151 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 8 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 6

Customer Reviews

A Fantastic Read

Mr. Chickee's Funny Money has a little of realistic fiction and mystery together. The theme of this book is helping Mr. Chickee with things he needed. The setting of this book starts with a kid in Michigan named Steven. The conflict is that Steven is trying to find out if the Quadrillion-dollar bill Mr. Chickee gave is real or not. Steven always helps Mr. Chickee on Saturday, because he was blind. The Mr. Chickee rewarded Steven with money for being so kind to him. After, Mr. Chickee moved to Philadelphia, the home of brotherly love. I liked how Steven used the Snoopeeze 2000 to spy on Agent Fondoo through the wall. But, I disliked how the other kids mocked Mr. Chickee for being blind. These are my reasons why I recommend this book.

Mr. Chickee's Funny Money

I love how the characters of Chickee's Funny Money have such "funny" names, like Zoopie, Agent Fondoo, and Mr. Chickee. The characters are hilarious! This book would be great for 8 to 12 year-olds (2nd grade to 6th grade). Mr. Chickee's Funny Money is adventure fiction. In the book, a boy named Steven sticks up for his old blind neighbor, Mr. Chickee, when all the other kids (except for his five-year old friend, Russell) make fun of Mr. Chickee. One day, Mr. Chickee wants to leave Steven's town to visit some relatives. Mr. Chickee gives Steven an envelope and tells Steven not to open it until he gets home. When he gets home, Steven opens it up to find a...quadrillion-dollar bill with some jumbled letters! He wants to know what it means, so he shows it to his Mom and Dad. Steven's Dad takes him to a government agent named Agent Fondoo. When Agent Fondoo saw the quadrillion dollar bill, he wanted to get it back. It used to be the government's bill, but Mr. Chickee somehow got it. Christopher Paul Curtis made the words pop out from the page, like when Steven's dad said, "'I'M NOT PLAYING WITH YOU, STEVEN DAEMON CARTER. STAY OUT!!!!!!!!!" My favorite part of the book is in the ending, but to tell you would give the entire book away. Two thumbs up for Christopher Paul Curtis!

a laugh out loud book

My 6th grader couldn't resist reading this book out loud at the dinner table, chuckling the whole time. A didactic father who turns every event into an excuse for a math or history lesson, an overly patronizing mother who has read one too many child psychology books -- what child wouldn't identify with their long-suffering son, who sees right through them? I especially liked the fact that here, as in Bud Not Buddy, while it becomes gradually clear by the end of the story that the protagonist is African-American, that fact is no more and no less relevant than describing some other character as Irish. Highly recommended.

Mr. Chickee's Funny Money by Skylar Haugenes

Mr. Chickee's Funny money was a super book.It begins when Steven get a quadrillion dollor bill. Then he and his dad show Agent Fondoo, and Agent Fondoo will do anything to get the bill back. Even send Steven and his best friends on a wild goose chase. If you like adventure books that are fast moving and don't let you know what will happen next this is the book for you.

An eccentric and hilarious sleuth story

Mr. Othello Chickee is Steven's blind, elderly neighbor. Every Saturday morning Steven accompanies Mr. Chickee to the grocery store to assist him with his shopping. Usually Mr. Chickee pays Steven with Vernor's Gingerale and a bag of potato chips, but one day he gives Steven an envelope that contains a most unusual piece of currency --- a quadrillion-dollar bill with a picture of singer James Brown on it. Steven, his buddy Russell, and Zoopy (Russell's huge, bear-like dog) are the only members of Flint's Future Detectives, a rather exclusive group of budding sleuths. Steven and Russell are determined to find out if the bill is real. Russell already has plans to purchase a spiffy new bike with his share of the money. Steven consults Great-great Grampa Carter's dictionary for clues about the money, but the dictionary insults Steven with ever-changing comments on the copyright page. Steven's dad thinks the money is an advertising gimmick, but Steven's mother wants a second opinion, which is how Steven got entangled with the Treasury Department in the first place. Special Agent Fondoo of the Treasury Department knew there was a huge reward for any government official who could locate and return the missing, accidentally-in-circulation, quadrillion-dollar bill, and he wasn't about to let Future Flint Detective Steven in on this secret. Before long Steven and Russell are being pursued by several secret agents with high-tech gear who are desperate to get their hands on the funny money in Steven's possession. Steven uses all his detective powers and tricks to elude them, but eventually the agents outnumber and overpower him. Russell meets with an accident and Zoopy disappears. In desperation Steven throws away the money. He feels that it is jinxed. Besides, what good is money without your best friend and dog to share it with? This sleuth story does have a happy ending, and according to author Christopher Paul Curtis, the members of the Flint Future Detectives will appear in a series of books. --- Reviewed by Carole Turner