3/4  Feels like electricity
Pretty good movie, in which a boy decides to give ballet a try as he finds he's pretty good at it. Typical stereotypes abound as he's doing something other boys his age wouldn't do, but through ballet Billy finds a strong outlet to expres... (read full)

3.5/4  Billy Elliot Quick Review
This is a very touching story of a boy who loves to dance, when no one thinks he should. Lots of good drama and plenty of funny moments.

4/4  Billy Elliot Quick Review
One of my all-time favorites. A charming, touching story with laughs, tears, tragedy and triumphs. The acting is wonderful.

5/5 "It flows, like electricity...aye...that's it..electricity!"
  by R. Stott (Aurora, CO USA)
When Billy is explaining what it feels like to dance, he basically summarizes the whole of this screenplay: "...starts out sort of stiff..." but then, he adds, the dance (and story) unfolds and becomes "a fire....electricity." Since I decided that Billy Elliot ranked as one of my favorite movies of 2000, I felt that the book would offer some insight and help to follow the whole of the story (boy those accents are hard to decipher at times in the movie!) This book, in screenplay form, offers all those one liners and dialogue parts you just missed while watching the movie. Pictures from the movie placed throughout the book are a nice added touch. A very satisfying screenplay of a very satisifying movie! It is simply a wonderful tale of getting out of the hard places and truly soaring towards your goals.

5/5 Brilliant by far the best book i've read
  by
It is just brilliant although it isn't very long you just have keep reading you cannot put it down it is just brilliant!

4/5 A good read, but not up to par with the play or movie
  by
Curiously, this version of Billy Elliot (a novelization written by Melvin Burgess) was obviously written to appeal to young adult readers of about jr. high/high school age, who, strangely enough, would not likely be old enough to go see or even really interested in a film such as Billy Elliot in the first place. This novelization unfortunately washes away the directness and vividness so apparent in the written screenplay. The descriptions interspersed within the dialogue take much of the original starkness of the play and movie away, leaving Billy to seem rather flat emotionally. The strife and hardship of Billy's struggle to attain his goals in light of his difficult family situation is largely defused. Lee Hall's excellent screenplay is FAR superior!! Pick that up and by-pass Melvin Burgess's attempt.

2/5 Not what I expected
  by Libby 23 (Iowa City, IA)
This book reads like a script, not a book. Maybe I didn't understand the description. It does not flow easily and is disrupting as each person's dialogue is prefaced with center-justified, all-caps of each character's name "BILLY says" or "MRS. WILKINSON says"; or stage directions such as "cut to" or "Billy goes off, his eyes full of tears" or "she puts the food on the plate".

Enjoyed the movie years ago; absolutely loved the Broadway show; but sadly don't like this version of the book. I was hoping for a regular story that read like a novel, not a script.