Children's Fiction New Experience
Dumb Luck
- Publisher
- Red Deer Press
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2011
- Category
- New Experience, Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance, General, New Experience
- Recommended Age
- 12 to 15
- Recommended Grade
- 7 to 10
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780889954656
- Publish Date
- Sep 2011
- List Price
- $12.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781552443118
- Publish Date
- Sep 2011
- List Price
- $12.99
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
A new young adult novel from the acclaimed author of Living Outside the Lines
As he approaches his 18th birthday, Brandon DeWolf knows he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He failed a grade in an undistinguished school career, and is contemplating spending two more years in school when most of his friends will be graduating at the end of the academic year. He tends to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, has no real ambitions, and seems to be at a dead end. Among the few happy moments of his life are the ones he spends with his good friend Kayla, a girl he's known from childhood, another misfit.
Two days before his birthday, however, everything changes for Brandon. First of all he falls out of a tree - and survives intact. On his birthday, savouring his lucky break, he picks up a lottery ticket, and discovers he's won three million dollars. Suddenly everyone's his good friend, and his parents - a discontented frequently squabbling pair - rejoice in anticipating all that this sudden bonanza will buy them. The school's hottest girl becomes Brandon's coach in this new unaccustomed life he has to adapt to. His old friend Kayla realizes their friendship is withering, and Brandon doesn't have the capacity to do much about that. Plunged into a world that is completely new to him - and without any real moral compass to follow - Brandon flounders and eventually is brought down in disgrace, spending a night in jail after being caught drinking and driving. There is no happy ending for Brandon, just a solemn understanding that he cannot recover his old life and needs to find the integrity to map out a new one.
This is the latest in the series of provocative and thoughtful young adult novels by Lesley Choyce. Lesley enjoys portraying teenagers at those uncomfortable and challenging moments as they approach the cusp of adulthood with all its dangers and possibilities.
About the author
No one has a clearer view of Atlantic Canada's literary endeavours over the past twenty years than Lesley Choyce. He is the founder of the literary journal Pottersfield Portfolio, and the publisher of Pottersfield Press. He has edited several fiction anthologies and has been the in-house editor of many books from Pottersfield Press including Making Waves, a collection of stories by emerging authors from Atlantic Canada. He is the author of more than fifty books in genres ranging from poetry and essays to autobiography, history and fiction for adults, young adults, and children. Among his recent books are the novels The Republic of Nothing, World Enough, and Cold Clear Morning, and the story collection Dance the Rocks Ashore. Choyce is the writer, host, and co-producer of the popular literary show television program, Off the Page with Lesley Choyce, which is broadcast across the country on Vision TV. He also teaches in the English department of Dalhousie University in Halifax and is leader of the rock band The Surf Poets.
Editorial Reviews
Praise for Living Outside the Lines
“[Lesley] Choyce has written a beautiful story that will draw readers in to its possibilities.”—School Library Journal
Praise for THE BOOK OF MICHAEL
“…a compelling read with a well-rounded cast of characters.”-School Library Journal
