Kamari Brown And His First Million

by Steven Gosling

'All I want to be is rich, cool and successful.
I've got the cool part sorted.'

13-year-old Kamari Brown tries to help his poor family out, with get rich schemes, but they get him more trouble than money. Until the track of a best-selling rapper, gets mixed up with one of his songs, and he becomes the hottest property in music.

Things go great until he finds out about the mix-up. Will other people find out? Will he own up? One thing's for sure; nothing will go as planned.

The book is a MG/teen comedy with a diverse set of characters. Exploring real world issues, and the importance of friendship and family.

266 pages, Paperback

Published September 16, 2025

Reviews

[Tony Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it on Netgally in exchange for an honest review. Hilarious comedy about a 13-year-old, trying all sorts of get rich schemes to help his poor family out. They get him more trouble than money, until he hits the jackpot with a rap record. If you can imagine a cross between Bart Simpson, and Arthur Daily who raps, then you've got him. It's quite a roller coaster ride, with some very sad parts and touches on some serious topics. Perfect for 10-14 year olds.

[Fatguyreading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kamari Brown is a 13 year old from a struggling family who tries his best to help them out with all kinds of get rich quick schemes. But none of them work and mostly end up getting him into trouble. So in a last ditch attempt, he writes a rap song, which, as fate will have it, gets mixed up with a famous rapper's record, and lo and behold, it becomes a huge success and Kamari's and his once poor family's life changes drastically for the better.

But success goes right to Kamari's head and it's not long before he becomes what he once hated. But can he change his ways before it's too late?

Be sure to pick your copy up to find out.

So all in all, an incredibly entertaining read that I read with our 9 year old Daughter over about a week or so. We both really enjoyed the humour throughout, there's some brilliant laugh out loud moments, but it's not all humour, there's deeper layers to this story. It's also a tale of poverty and hardship, and of grief, topics that are very relatable to us all, most of us have struggled at some point in our lives.

I also like that there's such a great, diverse set of characters here, and especially the main character being a black boy is very commendable, with this demographic being the most underrepresented in literature.

The pace of the story was just right, bobbing along nicely.

5 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟's from us.

[Steven Withervy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it on Netgally in exchange for an honest review.

Kamari Brown is a 13-year-old boy, who lives with his mother and twin brother. He tries every sort of get rich scheme to help his poor family out. None of them ever work and they just get him into trouble. His nemesis is Jemima Anderson a rich spoilt snob, who is the daughter of his mother’s boss. He comes up with the idea of making a rap record to make money, and when his record is mixed up with the record of a famous rapper, he becomes a success.

Things go to his head and he slowly becomes the thing that he hates. It is really funny, and had me laughing out loud in places. There are some very moving parts, and it deals with poverty and grief, but in an age appropriate way. Will he realise what he’s becoming and get back on track? I’ll let you read it and find out.

[Nadia Jonesy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and Steven Gosling for this read. This book was quiet a trip. Kamari Brown, 13, uses get-rich schemes to try to aid his impoverished family, but they cause him more problems than they do financial gain. That is, until a best-selling rapper's song is mingled with one of his tracks, making him the most desirable person in the music industry