Dumb Luck - Softcover

Choyce, Lesley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0889954658 ISBN 13: 9780889954656

Publisher: Red Deer Press, 2011

Synopsis

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 this title

About the Author:

Lesley Choyce once said that a voice in his head told him: "Write about what makes you feel the most uncomfortable." The award-winning author of 65 books for children, teens, and adults and a surfer, musician, publisher, broadcaster, Lesley Choyce is always a fresh voice, challenging his readers to explore new paths, try out different attitudes. Lesley surfs year-round in the North Atlantic, teaches at Dalhousie University and lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

From Booklist:

This tale of a sub-ordinary teen saddled with a sudden fortune should make losers everywhere feel a little better about themselves. “All my life, I’d considered myself a person who was not very bright,” notes Brandon—citing as evidence his father’s constant criticism, his status as a social outcast, and the fact that he’s headed toward a repeat performance of his junior year. But an impulse-purchase lottery ticket brings instant change to his relationships with his parents, his longtime buddy Kayla, and especially with a hot classmate suddenly eager to educate him on how to live large. In short order he drops out of school, gets a classy apartment and new BMW, and has easy access to liquor and women. Fortunately, Brandon turns out not only to have a fundamentally decent nature that leads him to do some good deeds with his windfall but also a fund of common sense that (usually) compensates for his naïveté. His experiences leave him a little sadder and wiser but also eager to see what comes next. Not a bad outcome, all in all. Grades 7-10. --John Peters

About this edition

• Publisher: Red Deer Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0889954658
• ISBN 13: 9780889954656
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232