Half a Chance
Written by Cynthia Lord
Summary
The realistic fiction novel Half a Chance written by Cynthia Lord, tells the story of a girl who's dad is a professional photographer. Lucy's family recently moved to a house on a New Hampshire lake. She finds out that her dad is judging a photography contest and she wants to enter. As she looks for places to take pictures, she meets Nate, the boy next door. His family takes care and watches over the loons at the lake. She learns that his grandmother isn't able to see the loons because the boat is too small. As a result, Lucy wants to win the contest to buy a pontoon boat for his grandmother. As the days go by and they take more pictures, her camera slowly reveals that his family is changing in not the best way.
Pontoon Boat
Lucy wants to win the contest to get a pontoon boat for Nate's grandmother.
Loon eggs and baby
This year there were two loons eggs instead of last years' one egg.
Loon Family
The mother and father loons that Lucy is watching over.
About the Characters:
Lucy
Her father is a famous photographer and he is always going on business trips. She finds out her father is judging a photography contest and she wants to enter to see if she has a true talent in photography. She enters the contest using Nate's name. She goes on loon patrol to help Nate's family. Lucy is a little too worried about her impressions toward Nate's family after she saw an eagle take away with the two loon babies.
Nate
Nate is the boy that lives in a cottage next to Lucy. Throughout the story, Nate helps Lucy with taking the pictures for the contest and posing as well. For the photography contest, there are categories for what type of pictures to take. One category is Lost. Lucy has to chose between two pictures, Nate posing to be lost or a picture of Grandma Lilah. Nate doesn't like the picture of Grandma Lilah because she looks scared. Lucy wants to chose that picture because it has deep meaning. Without Nate knowing, Lucy chooses the picture of Grandma Lilah. When Nate looks at the picture, he sees his grandmother, the person he loves.
Would I recommend this book?
This book was definitely not the most challenging book I've read. It is a realistic fiction so if that's not your favorite genre I wouldn't recommend reading it. It is a fairly easy read and there are only about 200 pages. There were only a couple of words that I didn't know. I felt that in the beginning the plot was a little boring but near the middle there were definitely problems that occurred between the characters.