The realistic fiction novel Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord is about a girl who enters a photograph scavenger hunt contest while she goes through the bumps of friendship and love for animals in her intriguing quest to search. The main character is Lucy, she is a shy and intelligent girl who cares for the connection of her family and friends. Lucy gets her skills at photography from her famous photographer dad. She always wants to please and impress her parents, since they never have much time together as a family. Her heart is also very caring to her friendships, because they never to last long. Her family has to move all the time, either for work, pleasure, family matters, and more! The main problem is Lucy’s friend, Nate’s grandmother. Grandma Lilah. Grandma Lilah is experiencing the serious effects of dementia. She is losing her memory very fast, and will someday even forget Nate. One of Grandma Lilah’s treasures are the beloved loons (a type of bird) that live on the lake in front of her summer house. Lucy wants to win the contest to buy Grandma Lilah a motorized raft, so she could go out and see the loons, since she is too old to kayak across the lake. The real problems are the amount of money, and if Lucy will win the contest, and Megan. Megan is Nate’s other best friend, but Megan wants to be the one and only. Throughout the book Megan is very mean and cruel to Lucy, but in the end… you know what, just read the book. My opinion is that this is one of the most detailed books I have ever read! It has to be, since the photographs have to be the best, detailed to description. The way the storyline was set up, kept me reading till the very end! The one thing I could have changed was how much action there was to the story, there wasn’t much. Don’t get me wrong, I like a nice action-packed tale, with humor, romance, and all the other components of emotion. But the chapters in this book were full to the top with emotion and feelings, no balance of action that I like. So if you’re not like me, and just love a cuddly, sweet book that has all the feeling, tenderness, and affection rolling through the pages, then I suggest you go for it! -Serena
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