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Jump to navigationJump to searchLolly Luck by Ellie Daines (view source)
Revision as of 08:58, 20 November 2011
, 08:58, 20 November 2011no edit summary
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Lolly really is called 'Luck'. Her first name is Lollyanna but everyone who knows her calls her Lolly or, just occasionally, Lollipop. And she really is lucky, winning magazine competitions, raffles and scratch card prizes - but all this changes on her eleventh birthday when she goes home from school expecting that the family is going to have a great evening at a local restaurant and hat that she'll be given the bike she's been dreaming about. She gets the bike, but her dad has bad news. He's been made redundant. At first it's not too bad but then the reality of long-term unemployment kicks in and the family lose their home. Then Lolly overhears an argument between her parents and discovers something which will change her life.
Ellie Daines has captured a situation will will be all to real for many children - if not to themselves then to someone they know. Even adults who have been in reliable jobs all their lives are unemployed and there's a candid (if slightly scary) picture of the realities of the situation. Not every redundancy package results in the loss of the home and the break-up of a marriage but Daines shows how Lolly is caught up in a situation over which she has no control and results in her, her mother and sister living in a flat on a council estate with a dreadful reputation.
