''The Million Dollar Goal'' is a children's sports novel by American author

Dan Gutman Dan Gutman (born October 19, 1955) is an American writer, primarily of children's fiction. His works include the '' Baseball Card Adventures'' children's book series that began with '' Honus & Me'', and the '' My Weird School'' series. Early li ...

, first published by

Hyperion Books for Children Disney Publishing Worldwide (DPW), formerly known as The Disney Publishing Group and Buena Vista Publishing Group, is the publishing subsidiary of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Its imprints inclu ...

in 2003. It is part of the Million Dollar series, in which different sports have a competition involving a million dollar reward. In this book, the sport is

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

.''The Million Dollar Goal'' at Fantastic Fiction
/ref> In promotion of Gutman's 2006 novel '' The Million Dollar Putt'', Hyperion Books for Children republished the authors previous four books in his Million Dollar series, hiring Michael Koelsch to illustrate new cover artworks for all five novels.

Plot summary

Twins Dawn and Dusk Rosenberg love hockey, and have been playing hockey since they were in the mighty mite league. They live outside

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, and their dad does not have much of a connection to hockey than to baseball. Mr. Rosenberg would never buy hockey gear for Dawn or Dusk, and makes them pay with their own money. The two even wrote

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...

s about hockey, Dusk's being more about the violence seen in hockey whatsoever. But to Dawn and Dusk's surprises, their dad buys them tickets to the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

("Well, we both just about fainted!") from one of his clients who couldn't use the season tickets that night. Dusk then tells about his grandmother, Sophie "Oma" Rosenberg, who apparently

farts Flatulence, in humans, is the expulsion of gas from the intestines via the anus, commonly referred to as farting. "Flatus" is the medical word for gas generated in the stomach or bowels. A proportion of intestinal gas may be swallowed environm ...

all the time and enters every contest she sees. She mostly wields a walker and (for long distances) a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

. Oma also curses most of the time in her language. She has a great desire for

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

, and still has a

Velvet Elvis A Velvet Elvis is a painting of Elvis Presley on velvet. It typically represents a costumed torso of Elvis holding a microphone, painted on black velvet (or velvet of some other dark color, such as navy blue, red or purple). This iconic velvet p ...

(Mrs. Rosenberg calls it "khalooscious") on the wall as a good luck charm, and throws a fit when it is taken down. Oma tends to be embarrassing to Dusk and Dawn, cursing and farting in front of her friends. Dusk wishes Oma would die sooner or late ARMANt the

Molson Centre Bell Centre (), formerly known as Molson Centre (), is a multi-purpose arena located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Opened on March 16, 1996, it is the home arena of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL), replacing the Montr ...

, the Rosenbergs' tickets are for section 203, which Dusk complains to. Mr. Rosenberg even brings a video camera, already having a bunch of video collections in their basement. They take the elevator to the 200 level. Oma's complaining of not being able to see ends up in Dusk and Oma switching seats. The Canadiens end up behind 4-0 in the first period, and worsening. The team loses 8-1, but afterwards, the lucky winner of the Million Dollar Goal Contest would be chosen, but through a JumboTron screen, which would sweep around and around to choose a section, and then would go in and out to choose a row. Section 203 (the section the Rosenbergs are sitting in) was chosen, and then Row L (the row the Rosenbergs are sitting in) was chosen, but the lucky winner was none other than a fast-asleep Oma. Mrs. Rosenberg believes Oma cannot take the shot, thinking Oma might fall and break a hip. Even when Dawn points out all the things affordable to buy, Mr. Rosenberg still refuses to let his mother take the shot for "a cool new video game system." Dawn suggests that the shot would be made easier for Oma, in which Dusk agrees for once. Their dad instantly believes Oma was chosen because she was an old "cripple" who couldn't walk, so they wouldn't have to pay off the million dollars. Oma rolls in and asks where she left her teeth, but quickly finds them in her mouth. But, however, Oma says she isn't a cripple and would take the shot. Dawn and Dusk end up having to train Oma for the big day, Oma to shoot goals on a layer of plastic ice, but Oma accidentally slips and falls, Dawn unable to grab her arm to prevent her. Oma is rushed to the hospital, but she never really broke anything. She however is reported to be a terrible hockey player, unable to make the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

if she would fall taking just a

slap shot ''Slap Shot'' is a 1977 American sports film directed by George Roy Hill, written by Nancy Dowd and starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean. It depicts a minor league ice hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declin ...

. She refused to take painkillers, as that was what killed her role model, Elvis Presley. Oma has her walker taken away and must use a wheelchair on a daily basis, but she says she would still take the shot. Oma must rest in bed for the next 2 days with no physical activity; Dawn and Dusk are afraid to try and retrain Oma after her first training. Mrs. Rosenberg tells them how people need something worth living for, an example being the achievement of Dawn and Dusk's other grandmother's wish to see the 21st century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Million Dollar Goal, The 2003 American novels Novels set in Montreal American sports novels Novels about ice hockey Fiction about twins American children's novels 2003 children's books Children's books set in Montreal Children's books about sports

Plot summary

See also

References