You May Already Be a Winner by Ann Dee Ellis

Publication Date July 11, 2017

Summary from NetGalley:

For fans of Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish and Katherine Applegate’s Crenshaw comes the humorous and heart aching story of one girl’s struggle to keep hope alive for her and her younger sister in Sunny Pines Trailer Park.

Twelve-year-old Olivia Hales has a foolproof plan for winning a million dollars so that she and her little sister, Berkeley, can leave behind Sunny Pines Trailer Park.But first she has to:
·  Fix the swamp cooler and make dinner and put Berkeley to bed because her mom is too busy to do all that
·  Write another letter to her dad even though he hasn’t written back yet
·  Teach Berk the important stuff, like how to make chalk drawings, because they can’t afford day care and Olivia has to stay home from school to watch her
·  Petition her oddball neighbors for a circus spectacular, because there needs to be something to look forward to at dumb-bum Sunny Pines
·  Become a super-secret spy to impress her new friend Bart
·  Enter a minimum of fourteen sweepstakes a day. Who knows? She may already be a winner!

Olivia has thought of everything . . . except herself. Who will take care of her when she needs it? Luckily, somewhere deep down between her small intestine and stomach is a tiny voice reminding her that sometimes people can surprise you—and sometimes your family is right next door.

Confession:

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

I totally picked this book on  Netgalley because of the cover.  Although the the synopsis did seal the deal.  It sounded like a good contemporary story about family and hope.  I enjoyed it thoroughly although there were some times when it moved a little slowly for me. 

I loved the relationship between Olivia and Berkeley.  They were very sweet with one another and very close.  They also supported each other when no one else was able to. Olivia was forced to take on the roll of parent to Berkeley most days, but she took it in stride and didn’t resent Berkeley for it.  Her interactions with her mother were sad for the most part.  Their mom was definitely a single parent in over her head and at a loss as to how to fix things for the better.  Olivia would write letters to her absent dad, which were silent pleas for help, but her dad never answered.  When he does finally show up there is a scene between him and Olivia where he tries to explain where he has been, but Olivia tunes him out.  I would have liked hearing more of what he said just because I wanted a better explanation of why he left.  There are lots of other adults in the trailer park who try to help the girls, but not always successfully.  Bart was the only character I didn’t really care for and that was mostly because of the way he acted around Olivia.  He just didn’t seem to care about her, but wanted her to approve of him.

Parts of the story were a little far fetched, but overall a very pleasant story that I enjoyed reading.