May 1, 2017
A down-at-the-heels sweepstakes entrant discovers she's had good luck all along.Twelve-year-old white Olivia enters lotteries and contests hoping for a big payoff; maybe her family can leave their trailer park. Dad's gone, Mom's overworked, money's tight. Olivia has more responsibilities than a kid should. She frequently misses school to watch over her 5-year-old sister, Berkeley, because day care is unaffordable; she's their de facto teacher; and she does all household chores. She vents, but in a first-person, present-tense voice that's distinct, colorful, richly imaginative, thoroughly authentic, often hilarious, and frequently heartbreaking. Readers will easily be drawn into Olivia's experiences, sometimes-bizarre daydreams, and daily disappointments, and they will admire her resilience and fierce devotion to family. Though Olivia doesn't credit it immediately, her neighbors are devoted to her too, not least quirky, white schoolmate Bart, self-proclaimed FBI agent, who becomes her steadfast friend. Meanwhile, neighbors are preparing to launch a first-ever community circus, an idea Olivia casually mentioned to give Berkeley something fun to contemplate--but never actually expected would materialize. A turning point when Olivia's ordered to return to school and must secretly stow Berkeley strains credulity but is suspenseful and triggers an emotional, satisfying climax. Ellis develops her supporting cast with nuance and increases readers' investment in Olivia with such details as her heartbreakingly one-sided correspondence to her father. Readers of this memorable novel will feel like winners, too. (Fiction. 8-12)
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May 1, 2017
Gr 4-6-With her father gone and her mother working overtime, there is never enough food, money, or attention in 12-year-old Olivia Hales's life. She enters multiple contests a day because the words, "You may already be a winner" give her hope for a better future. She takes care of her little sister Berk during the day, even skipping school to do so. When neighbor boy Bart notices that Olivia has been sacrificing school and friendships to care for her younger sister, he tells on her, bringing her carefully constructed plans to an end. The quirky characters and drama keep the story interesting and imaginative. The young characters deal with divorce, abandonment, and adult responsibilities. Short chapters include letters Olivia writes to her father. VERDICT Recommended for readers who enjoy realism with roller-coaster emotional arcs.-Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, Alta.
Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
June 1, 2017
Grades 4-7 Olivia is a sensitive, imaginative, and self-reliant 12-year-old who lives with her frazzled and depressed mother and little sister, Berkeley, in a mobile home park in Utah. Her father is no longer in the picture, and when Olivia isn't staying home from school to take care of Berkeley, she's preparing meals and combing the Internet to find sweepstakes and contests to enter to help her family. Eventually, she has to go back to school, and when Berkeley's cough keeps her from attending day care, she smuggles her sister into schoola stopgap solution that falls apart. At her core, though, Olivia not only believes in luck, she believes that she can create her luck, and, miraculously, she does. Olivia's first-person narrative fills brief, expressive chapters where she mixes fantasy and real life at will, all in a lyrical, poetic voice. Ellis realistically taps into the kind of magical thinking so typical of kids trying to solve big problems, and plenty of readers might recognize themselves in the appealingly optimistic, daydreaming Olivia.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)
January 1, 2018
Olivia is juggling more than any almost-thirteen-year-old should. Since her dad left the family, Olivia cares for her little sister, prepares meals her exhausted single mother won't eat, and regularly enters sweepstakes in hopes their luck will improve and they can move out of Sunny Pines Trailer Park. Ellis poignantly reveals Olivia's inner life, her anger, and the daydreams that enable her to survive.
(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)