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The One-in-a-Million Boy

Monica Wood

4.09 · Rating details · 29,332 ratings · 4,298 reviews

The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don't they teach you anything at school?

So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who's been sent to help her out every Saturday morning. As he refills the bird feeders and tidies the garden shed, Ona tells him about her long life, from first love to second chances. Soon she's confessing secrets she has kept hidde ...more

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Hardcover, 416 pages

Published April 5th 2016 by Headline Review

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Mar 19, 2016 Claire rated it really liked it

3.5 - "Start counting." Stars.

I will be honest and say that after reading the prequel novella to this book A Woman in a Million, I wasn’t 100% certain that I was going to get on with the authors writing style. But The One-in-a-Million Boy was a really unusual and intriguing read.

Miss Ona Vitkus has lead a long and varied life, the book is basically the retelling of it through different mediums. You are given her early years and mid life adventures through the tape recordings of the Boy. And what ...more

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Nov 11, 2016 Danielle McGrath rated it it was ok

Sadly, I completely lost interest in The One-in-a-Million Boy about half way through and pretty much forced myself to finish it. The story seemed to drag on and on without much really happening and I had trouble connecting with the characters.

I also felt like the book jumped around too much and made the plot and characters extremely hard to follow. Each time I started a new chapter, I felt like I was starting the book for the very first time. It always seemed I was half way through the chapter ...more

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Jan 21, 2020 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: friend-love, contemporary, 2020, old-and-young, library-request, on-new-laptop, hoopla, lib-has-audio, library, on-mp3

If you enjoy books that explore the relationship between someone very old and another very young, you'd probably really like this. The writing is smooth and easy to read and I fell for the main characters immediately. I was sucked in quickly and the pages effortlessly turned. The audio performance was also good. Not perfect, but serviceable and enjoyable.

Are we all tempted to judge a book by its cover? I know I do. I was looking for a light but not too light uplifting read and this cover seemed ...more

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Jun 12, 2016 Marianne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

“He had not loved his son enough. This knowledge lived like a malignancy on his heart. He wanted to believe that the boy, in a future now lost and impossible, would have forgiven him, would have taken their blundering history and found its logic and shaped it into items on a list. And that this – eating cake with Miss Ona Vitkus – would be one of those items”

The One-In-A-Million Boy is the fourth novel by American author, Monica Wood. When Quinn Porter turns up at the home of Miss Ona Vitkus on “He had not loved his son enough. This knowledge lived like a malignancy on his heart. He wanted to believe that the boy, in a future now lost and impossible, would have forgiven him, would have taken their blundering history and found its logic and shaped it into items on a list. And that this – eating cake with Miss Ona Vitkus – would be one of those items”

The One-In-A-Million Boy is the fourth novel by American author, Monica Wood. When Quinn Porter turns up at the home of Miss Ona Vitkus on Sibley Avenue in Portland, Maine, he does so to fulfil a duty his eleven-year-old son had taken on. As part of Scout Troupe 23, the boy (whose name is never mentioned) had been doing yard work, filling the bird feeders, whatever needed to be done for the old lady. But now could not.

Quinn plans to do his duty for the required seven Saturdays and then move on. But in Ona’s house, he finds traces of the son he was unable to connect with in life. “Quinn had never wanted children, had been an awkward, largely absent father; and now, in the wake of the boy’s death, he was left with neither the ice-smooth paralysis of shock, not the crystalline focus of grief, but rather with a heart-swelling package of murky and miserable ironies”

Miss Ona Vitkus is old; one hundred and four years old, to be exact. “Her stockinged legs looked like rake handles jammed into small black shoes”. And yet, somehow, this old lady does connect with the boy: “He waited. With the unruffled patience of a cat. This did not seem like a deficiency…She regarded him carefully; maybe it was the uniform, which could have been fifty years old; maybe it was his throwback manners; or the sea gray of his irises, which suggested an age and wisdom he could not possibly possess”

She finds she trusts him enough to consent to the recording of her memories: “He began with a question of his own, passed across the table in immaculate penmanship. His handmade questions, the product of silent forethought, invariably unhooked a shut gate, leaving her to brace against an onrush of memory. The surprise was how little she minded”

“She felt suddenly fond of her unremarkable life, that humdrum necklace of imitation pearls with the occasional glint of the real thing. The boy kept glancing at her as he would at a prize heifer, and she felt like one: round and healthy, clean and well brushed, a surefire winner”.

Wood’s format is original: Divided into five parts, each prefaced with a Lithuanian word, she uses a combination of straight narrative, transcripts of tape recordings and World Record Lists (which may seem a little strange, but is quite effective) to tell the far-from-ordinary life story of Miss Ona Vitkus, but also to reveal events in the life of Quinn, the boy, and his mother, Belle.

Wood’s descriptive prose is exquisite: “Mrs Japan and Mrs Romania had unpronounceable names, the former free-floating with vowels, the latter fortressed by consonants” and “She’s tucked the boy safely offstage, in a species of Limbo. He was less than real but more, much more, than a memory: a voice speaking from the wings, an impression of living stillness” are examples.

Wood’s characters are appealing for all their quirks and flaws, especially the boy: “Belle managed something like a laugh despite her sorrow, for the boy’s syntactical oddities had always pleased her. He’d read obsessively – instruction manuals, record books, novels far too old for him – picking up linguistic baubles like a crow mining a roadside”.

Wood touches on grief, on ageing, on obsessive behaviour, on responsibility, on the love between a parent and a child. Her ending is bound to bring a lump to the throat of the most cynical reader. Funny and poignant, this is a brilliant read.
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Jan 10, 2016 Dannii Elle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-cuteness, adult-books-read

I received this book from Goodreads Giveaways. This has in no way impacted my opinion of the book. Thank you to the author, Monica Wood, and the publisher, Headline Review, for the opportunity.

This was one of the most beautiful and heart-warming tales I have ever read. The entire story, and the characters therein, are haunted by the memory of a deceased child and their actions are due, in-part, to how his loss has affected them and how they attempt to cope with their grief. This unnamed child ca ...more

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Mar 14, 2019 Heather rated it really liked it

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 A wonderfully sweet story!

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Jun 28, 2016 Ariel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2016

Miss Ona Vitkus is one hundred and four years old. She is not the oldest living person in the world but she has a feasible shot at snapping up the Guiness World Record title if she can stick around for another two decades. A fact discovered with great enthusiasm by the keen eleven year old boy that marched up to her door in a scout uniform one rainy, thawing March day. Ona Vitkus hasn't had much luck with the scouts that appear throughout the year at the behest of scoutmaster Ted Ledbetter but t Miss Ona Vitkus is one hundred and four years old. She is not the oldest living person in the world but she has a feasible shot at snapping up the Guiness World Record title if she can stick around for another two decades. A fact discovered with great enthusiasm by the keen eleven year old boy that marched up to her door in a scout uniform one rainy, thawing March day. Ona Vitkus hasn't had much luck with the scouts that appear throughout the year at the behest of scoutmaster Ted Ledbetter but there is something different about this boy, something familiar that warms between the two of them as an unlikely friendship is struck.

A Lithuanian immigrant brought to America at the age of 4 by her parents, Ona has led a kaleidoscopic life. She regales The Boy of the intense eyes and infinite questions with her experiences and some impressive card tricks. As the weeks pass there is a sense of breath rushing back in to not only Ona's present days but also a well worn and faded past.

The One-in-a-Million Boy offers up a wealth of empathic introspection. Monica Wood delves into family, friendship, loss, memory, and more with a fluid style that provides quirk and sparks a sustaining interest. I believe that it is easy to write loss, in the same way it's easy to write love - they are universal human experiences, they grasp at everyone in some way or another. However, it takes skill to make the universal personal, to provoke identifying emotion in a reader. Wood possesses this skill and employs it poignantly. To a point at which a novel that could have been simply strung together by modern quirks becomes a moving read.

I enjoyed Wood's One-in-a-Million though there were parts I wanted more from. What impressed me most and caused me to lean towards a 3.5 to 4 star rating was Wood's artistic prowess in relaying character interaction. There is so much to be gleaned about each character's personality as you read their conversations, so much to connect with. As an example, the interview between Ona and The Boy. Though this is a large aspect of their relationship throughout the book, it is one sided. Ona answers questions that The Boy has written down yet you still get a clear picture of The Boy as the interview progresses. He becomes such a relatable and fleshed out character in these passages.

Whether for artistic ability or for the emotional experience, I would recommend this book as an interesting, if quick, read. I'd also recommend that a tissue or two be handy along the way.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for this ARC. I'm grateful for the chance to read and review this novel as well as the chance to be introduced to Monica Woods' writing.
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May 29, 2017 Sherri Thacker rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star-books-that-i-loved

Just a fabulous book from start to finish!!! Just fabulous!!!

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May 16, 2016 Cindy Burnett rated it it was amazing

5++

WOW. The One-in-a-Million Boy is a superb, not-to-be missed novel. Monica Wood has written a stunning, complicated and emotionally riveting story about the effects and impact of developing human relationships. That being said, it is a major tearjerker. I teared up or flat out cried through at least a third of the novel so when reading this wonderful story have tissues nearby.

Before the book begins, Ona Vitkus, a 104-year old woman, and an eccentric 11-year old boy (whose name we never learn a 5++

WOW. The One-in-a-Million Boy is a superb, not-to-be missed novel. Monica Wood has written a stunning, complicated and emotionally riveting story about the effects and impact of developing human relationships. That being said, it is a major tearjerker. I teared up or flat out cried through at least a third of the novel so when reading this wonderful story have tissues nearby.

Before the book begins, Ona Vitkus, a 104-year old woman, and an eccentric 11-year old boy (whose name we never learn and who is obsessed with The Guinness Book of World Records) have become friends while the boy helps out weekly around Ona’s house as part of a Boy Scout project to earn a badge. When the story opens, the reader quickly learns (or probably already knew from inside blurb on the jacket cover) that the boy has died. His father Quinn, who was rarely around and is now feeling guilty for his poor job as a father, has agreed to complete the remaining seven weeks that the boy had with Ona to earn his badge. Ona’s relationship with the boy is the first true relationship she has had in years, and she is deeply saddened by his death. As Quinn begins his visits to help out around Ona’s house, he slowly gets to know the son he never felt comfortable with when the boy was alive.

Monica Wood has created a thing of beauty and wonder in the relationship between Ona and the boy. Both of them so clearly benefit from the other, and her writing of these passages is spectacular. (though again you will need many tissues) Ona is wonderfully written and very well developed. Monica Wood vividly portrays what is like to live 104 years and everything that comes with living that long. I really loved Quinn who manages to finally find his way as he comes to terms with how he has lived his life so far. The boy, seen mainly through Ona and Quinn’s eyes, is also such a sweet and profound character.

Two additional items really contributed to the story. First, the boy had been recording Ona’s life story and answers to questions the boy came up with for a class project. These recordings are interspersed throughout the story and add so much insight and at times humor to the novel. Second, Wood includes Guinness Book of World Records statistics throughout the novel that tend to tie in with what is happening in the story in that section. I loved that addition.

I do not think a review can really do this book justice. I highly, highly recommend it. The One-in-a-Million Boy will stay with me for a long time.
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Jul 10, 2019 Kathryn in FL rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019, classic, drama, family-relationships, fiction, marriage, appeal-2-men, most-memorable

Centenarian, Ona is receiving help through her local boy scouts. Her newest assignment is a young boy, of eleven that connects with her in a way that few people in recent decades have in have done. She and he bond powerfully and each fill the other with encouragement and mutual acceptance and even admiration. Then one Saturday, then another, he no longer visits. Then one Saturday at his usual time, his father, Quinn shows up in his place and the story unfolds into a beautiful study on the import Centenarian, Ona is receiving help through her local boy scouts. Her newest assignment is a young boy, of eleven that connects with her in a way that few people in recent decades have in have done. She and he bond powerfully and each fill the other with encouragement and mutual acceptance and even admiration. Then one Saturday, then another, he no longer visits. Then one Saturday at his usual time, his father, Quinn shows up in his place and the story unfolds into a beautiful study on the importance of love and support and healing.

Quinn has been an absentee Father to this boy (his name is never mentioned in the text, thus he is a mystery to the reader as well) because Quinn's focused on trying to break into the music scene by traveling the country for gigs. Belle, his ex-wife, encourages him to fulfill the young man's obligation, so he can heal without infringing on her own grieving process. Quinn gets a lot more than easing his loss, he discovers a young boy that despite his loss of a father figure, had a desire to make a difference in Ona's life and he was focused on his future, mature beyond his years. Ona helped him, as he reveals a truth about his own life.

Ona's experience with the mystery boy brought about a renewed vitality to her life. Isolated and alone, she had emotionally given up on life. When the young boy's enthusiasm (obsession?) for the Guinness Book of World Records is brought into their conversations, he and Ona discuss how she may become a world record holder as a centenarian. He assesses her competition and she realizes that there is more life ahead of her. He helps her study and pass her driver's license (she wants to hold the record for oldest driver but she has a few years to get there). This hope leads to revisiting her past. Her adventure becomes Quinn's and Belle's as well, as each gets closure on their past, so that each can move forward with renewed hope for the future.

This a love story of a different sort. As each person steps back in time to address their pain, forgiving themselves for mistakes made and those involved, they are now ready to move forward, to a hopeful future full of promise. This was a most powerful read. There is laughter and tears (keep tissues at hand). If you liked, "Have You Seen Luis Velez?" This will also be a favorite. I actually liked this more. Thanks to Ron for this terrific recommendation. ...more

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Apr 07, 2017 Rebecca Skane rated it really liked it

Shelves: tearjerker, book-club, general-fiction, family, usa

This one took a while to grow on me, but it eventually hit the mark. Any book that deals with the death of a child and parental grief is a struggle for me - it's not something I look forward to reading. Thankfully, it starts with the worst and moves on from there. Full Review: The One-in-a-Million Boy Book Review ...more

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Apr 03, 2018 Natasa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, united-states, owned-books

I loved this book so much! It was touching, heartwarming, emotional, loving, frustrating and satisfying all at the same time. I highly recommend this book. You can find full review on my blog: https://poetryofreading.blogspot.com/... ...more

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Apr 25, 2017 David Eppenstein rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I recently saw the movie "Manchester By The Sea". I didn't care for it. For the same reasons I didn't like that movie I formed a dislike for this book. But I'm giving it 4 stars so what gives, right? The book is about grieving, grieving over the sudden death of an 11 year old boy, a boy that probably suffers from some sort of mental disorder similar to OCD. I like authors that can tell a story about ordinary people in ordinary situations and do it in a way that can captivate a reader. This autho I recently saw the movie "Manchester By The Sea". I didn't care for it. For the same reasons I didn't like that movie I formed a dislike for this book. But I'm giving it 4 stars so what gives, right? The book is about grieving, grieving over the sudden death of an 11 year old boy, a boy that probably suffers from some sort of mental disorder similar to OCD. I like authors that can tell a story about ordinary people in ordinary situations and do it in a way that can captivate a reader. This author certainly has that talent but this story irritated me, at least initially. The boy is a scout and at the urging of his mother who has married and divorced the boy's father...twice. The mother is currently involved with a man who is the local scoutmaster and ergo the idea to enroll her son in the scouts. As part of a service project the boy is assigned to help a 104 year old lady with her household chores. The boy is odd in that he has absolutely no friends; is obsessed with the Guinness Book of World Records; and counts and does things in groups of ten. The old lady and the boy form a unexpected friendship and for a class project the boy decides to get the old lady to tell him her life story and this story is revealed in ten parts throughout the book. The boy then suddenly dies from an undiscovered genetic disorder. Now here is where my irritation begins to form. Grieving over such a loss is understandable but after a time the grieving becomes more about the person grieving and not about the loss of the deceased. It becomes selfish and disrespectful of the loss and when portrayed in a book like this it is for dramatic effect and lacking in the realism that I enjoy and admire. Maybe this belief of mine is because I read too much history where child mortality was so incredibly high that it was customary for parents to not even name their children until after they survived their first birthday thus giving rise to the custom of first birthdays we enjoy today. For our ancestors death was never unexpected, life was and life wasn't to be wasted in needless behavior. Anyway it was the dramatic grieving of the mother and the apparent numbness of the father that bothered me and I was sure this was going to be a 2 star, at best 3 star, review. But the book got better and the characters worked through the dramatics of grief and became more real. The author truly does have talent and this is a good book and I am sure bookclub ladies will love it I know my wife's group will. I am also sure my wife's bookclub won't believe I liked this book but I did. ...more

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Feb 16, 2018 Kim rated it really liked it

Oh wow, just a beautifully sad story. I recommend this one for sure!

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Nov 05, 2015 Eileen rated it liked it

Oh dear! For me this didn’t measure up. I loved two other books by this author and was disappointed here. It was well written, and certainly unique, but maybe I lacked the patience to appreciate all the obscure information which was provided to advance the plot. Actually, the boy protagonist was obsessed with world records and I did think of ten year old Tandy in Jojo Moyes’s One Plus One because she had a counting fixation! However, that aspect was endearing somehow, and the book earned high ma ...more

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Dec 07, 2018 Anna rated it it was ok

Shelves: partials-dnf

I put in my standard 50 pages and then let out a sigh of relief when I decided to let this one go. Maybe I quit too early, but I just hated the feckless, useless father, I didn't believe the kid's cute precociousness and the dialogue leaves me in doubt.
Once in a while, a writer will tackle a super-heavy dark topic like the death of a child, and it becomes really clear that they haven't experienced anything like that in their lives. It shows with this one. ...more

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Feb 06, 2018 Bonnie Shores rated it really liked it

Shelves: other

The blurb for this book tells you that this is "the incandescent story of a 104-year-old woman and the sweet, strange young boy assigned to help her around the house". I didn't see it that way at all.

"The boy", whose name we never learn, is already dead when the book begins; therefore, I saw the book as "the sad story of a 40-year-old man and the crabby 104-year-old woman he obligates himself to help around her house".

Quinn, the boy's dad, is a working musician who loved playing gigs more than h ...more

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May 24, 2017 Jill rated it really liked it

As a Maine reader, I love that this book is by a Maine writer. It was a lovely read.

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May 07, 2016 Kari Ann Sweeney rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020, 2016, audio-books, modern-mrs-darcy

As Ona would say, "Oh for crumbsake" I adored this book. Beautifully written. Charming and quirky. Sad and haunting. Heartfelt and warm. It wraps you up and you'll find that you want to stay there. ...more

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Oct 13, 2016 Shawn Mooney (Shawn The Book Maniac) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-the-books-podcast-recommends, great-on-audio, read-in-2016

One of the best books I've read this year. There's this nerdy little man, eleven years old to be precise, who seems like he might fit somewhere on the mild Asperger's end of the autism spectrum. He comes from a broken home, speaks in exuberant numbered lists a lot of the time, and is obsessed with the Guinness Book of World Records. His largely absent dad, Quinn, a musician, has never been able to connect with his quirky son; his single mom, Belle, adores the boy.

The unnamed kid is a Boy Scout, ...more

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Apr 22, 2016 Jen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

I laughed, I cried. This book took me by surprise. Character driven, the characters were real. Flawed, messed up, but still trying.

I really loved Ona. She drove a Reliant! WOOT, represent! She was also incredibly funny and also sad. But she wasn't the typical "feisty" little old lady. She was complex and I loved how her story unfolded little by little as the book progressed. The boy was so sweet it almost hurt, since at the beginning of the book you know what happens to him. Very bittersweet.

T ...more

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Aug 21, 2017 Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺ rated it liked it

Shelves: set-2000-present, book-club

While the premise of this book sounds like a cup of hot chocolate for the heart, the book itself doesn't meet the mark. A mediocre read throughout, but I did find myself grinning like a fool at the end. ...more

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Jan 25, 2018 G.J. rated it really liked it

This is a beautifully written book. The story is an odd one, the boy who does not feature so much, the 104 yr old lady he wanted to help and his divorced parents. There are several stories within the main story, all of them told in an such a way as to hold the readers interest. I really liked this story,the relationships and how they evolved were thought provoking and mostly a pleasure to read. My only slight irritation was the lay out, with the Guiness book of record sections! I did not think t ...more

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Apr 17, 2016 Kim Ebner rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Unfortunately and despite the rave reviews that this book gets, it just didn't work for me. I must say that reading the first part of the story, (the interaction between the boy and Ona), I absolutely loved it and thought it was going to be a 5 star read, but then the story fell flat after that. I found it very boring and slow...and although I finished the book, I couldn't wait for it to end so that I could move on to something else. That's when I know that a 2 star rating is the best I can do. ...more

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Sep 07, 2017 Angie Dokos rated it it was amazing

I absolutely loved this story. It was so touching and beautiful. I cried, and I laughed. I have a smile on my face just thinking about it. It was wonderful.

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Aug 26, 2020 Michelle Ule rated it it was amazing

Wow. This was a quirky, absolutely unusual contemporary novel that surprised me every three pages or so with unexpected events and plot twists.

It's hard to know how to describe it beyond a grieving father coming to terms with his son's unexpected death through the cranky 104-year-old woman who recently had befriended the boy. Together, and with a surprising goal, they come to a place of healing neither sought.

Featuring the Guinness Book of World Records, a teenage boy Gospel band, Boy Scout meri ...more

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Sep 01, 2016 Kaitlin rated it liked it

This was the September #BookBuddyBox pick and I was very happy to get a book I'd never heard of and one I maybe wouldn't have normally chosen for myself. This cover is stunning and when you read the book you can see just how all the elements link in, which I really liked. It's a contemporary story about an elderly woman, a young boy who helps her around the house (and in other ways) and the boy's father and mother who later become involved with the elderly woman too. This is a sad story, it's a This was the September #BookBuddyBox pick and I was very happy to get a book I'd never heard of and one I maybe wouldn't have normally chosen for myself. This cover is stunning and when you read the book you can see just how all the elements link in, which I really liked. It's a contemporary story about an elderly woman, a young boy who helps her around the house (and in other ways) and the boy's father and mother who later become involved with the elderly woman too. This is a sad story, it's a story about the death of a young person and the grief of a family, but it's also a happy story becuase it's about an old lady making the most of her remaining life. The connection that Ona, our old lady, and the unnamed young boy have is evident quickly, and this connection actually inspired Ona to do things she hasn't considered before.

The best thing about this book for me was that it's quite a quiet slow read and not too much 'crazy' stuff happens. That's normally not my style outside of fantasy and I tend to enjoy quicker pacing than this when reading contemporary but the #BookBuddyBox additions to the story made this a much much more enjoyable reading experience. As you go through the book you see that there are additional inserts added by Elena (creator of #BookBuddyBox and she's included recipes, images, notes and extra tidbits about the story. Each time I found an addition I was super intrigued and excited and it always felt like finding a little bit more of the treasure of the book. I definitely think it felt like I was buddy reading the book, and there were many things pointed out that I may have missed had I just read the book without additional bits.

In terms of pacing and characters this was a little slow for my liking personally, but I do think it's an engaging read and I loved the focus on Guinness World Records as they are super interesting. We have the main story of Ona and the boy's father as the present day story, then we have lists of records, and we have recordings between the boy and Ona about her life. All three of these sections are interspersed and mix to form the overall story.

Overall I would say my reading experience was dramatically enhanced by the #BookBuddyBox focus for this book and that really encouraged me to read a book which is a little outside my normal reading realm. I had a good time enjoying the mystery element and the book was a solid likeable read too. I gave it a 3.5*s overall which is great as I don't often read contemporary! ...more

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Jul 03, 2016 Stephanie Anze rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

Ona Vitkus is an 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant, who lives alone. As part of their community service, a boy from the scouts is assigned to Ona every saturday morning to help with jobs around the house. Having rejected most applicants, Ona finally accepts "the boy", an 11-year-old with an obsession with the Guinness Book of World Records. The two of them strike up a friendship until one saturday morning, "the boy" does not show up. Quinn, his father, shows up instead and what follows is an emo ...more

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Aug 08, 2017 Antoinette rated it it was amazing

I absolutely loved this book. I am writing this just minutes after finishing this extraordinary book, filled with such emotion. Monica Wood is a brilliant writer.
This story is about a boy whose compassion and love for a 104 year old woman changed his life and the lives of those around him. We meet Ona, a woman who at 104 still lives independently. The boy, whose name we never learn, has decided she has the ability to break Guinness records.
This book is all about the characters. It touched on so ...more

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Jun 10, 2017 Amanda rated it it was ok

Wow this book has a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews on Goodreads. So I am in the minority with my opinion, but this was not my cup of tea. I never connected with any of the characters. I didn't enjoy the plot or strange disjointed way of telling it. I was also really irritated by the way the boy's health issue was portrayed. It just didn't ring true to me that loving parents would treat it so casually. That's all I can say without having to push the spoiler button. It was a rare 1 star book for me b ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Play Book Tag: The One in a Million Boy by Monica Wood 3 stars	1	16	Sep 29, 2019 10:52AM
Play Book Tag: The One-In-A-Million Boy by Monica Wood - 4 stars	4	20	Nov 04, 2018 09:18AM
Ladies & Literature: Official March 2018 Book Discussion: The One-in-a-Million Boy	19	36	Apr 30, 2018 07:26PM
Temecula Valley B...: Guinness Attempt	7	12	Apr 03, 2018 08:48PM
Brantford Public ...: Final Thoughts	3	43	Jul 03, 2017 06:13PM

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The objects that shape my life - Monica Wood

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Genres

Fiction

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Contemporary

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Adult Fiction

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Audiobook

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Literary Fiction

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Book Club

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Adult

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Family

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Novels

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Realistic Fiction

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About Monica Wood

Monica Wood

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Monica Wood is the author of four works of fiction, most recently The One-in-a-Million-Boy, which won a 2017 Nautilus Award (Gold) and the 2017 fiction prize from the New England Society in the City of New York. She also is the author of Any Bitter Thing which spent 21 weeks on the American Booksellers Association extended bestseller list and was named a Book Sense Top Ten pick. Her other fictio ...more

Books by Monica Wood

When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine

The Pocket Muse: Ideas and Inspirations for Writing

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Quotes from The One-in-a-Mill...

“You know, one meets so many people, the years pass and pass, but there are certain times, certain people— . . . They take up room. So much room. I was married to Howard for twenty-eight years and yet he made only a piddling dent in my memory. A little nick. But certain others, they move in and make themselves at home and start flapping their arms in the story you make of your life. They have a wingspan. . . .” — 25 likes

“Because the story of your life never starts at the beginning.” — 25 likes

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