THE LOTTERYS MORE OR LESS

The Lotterys #2

by Emma Donoghue, Caroline Hadilaksono (Illustrator)

Sumac Lottery is the fifth of seven siblings who share a big house with their four parents, one grandfather and five pets. At age nine, she's the keeper of her family's traditions--always making sure the Lotterys' celebrations go off without a hitch.

But this winter all of Sumac's plans go wrong when a terrible ice storm hits the city, causing chaos. The emergency means that one of her dads and her favourite brother can't make it home from India in time for the holidays. Their visitor from Brazil gets injured and the Lotterys have to look after him. Then the power goes out. . . .

The Lotterys More or Less is the second of Emma Donoghue's stories about the family that likes to say, "Why not?"

Genres: Fiction, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Christmas, Canada, Young Adult, LGBT

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2018

About the author

Grew up in Ireland, 20s in England doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature, since then in Canada. Best known for my novel, film and play ROOM, also other contemporary and historical novels and short stories, non-fiction, theatre and middle-grade novels.

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

*I receive this book for free to review through @kidlitexchange. All opinions are my own.

The Lottery’s are a family of two gay men and two gay women who came together and decided to start a family all as one after winning the Lottery. They have a total of 7 children (some biological, some adopted), and they all live in one big home together in Canada. (The Lottery’s More or Less is actually the second book in a series by Emma Donoghue about the Lottery family.)

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room with this series: it feels like it’s pandering to the book world’s desire for more diversity in sometimes very obvious and unrealistic ways.

That being said, it didn’t stop me from ABSOLUTELY LOVING this family and their world. I loved every second from beginning to end. Reading this was my happy place. Every single character in this giant family was perfectly fleshed out and real. This is unfortunately rare for YA and middle grade novels. I can’t recommend these books enough. This is a book kids will want to read over and over again.

PS I want to be adopted by the Lotterys.

[Mimi 'Pans' Herondale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so cute and funny :) I must admit I liked it a little bit better than the first book in this series.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this eARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book about the Lottery family, one that consists of four parents and several adopted children. The fathers are together and the mothers are together and the children come from all different backgrounds, one is even beginning to identify as transgender. This book takes place during the holiday season and the family celebrates many aspects of the winter season. Sumac holds tight to the many family traditions, but when an ice storm hits the town and the electricity goes out, holiday traditions are in jeopardy. Things are even worse because on of her fathers is with a sibling in India and his plane is delayed because of the weather. The coach surfer they have from Guatemala gets in an accident and his eye needs to heal. Sumac will find a way to keep the holiday spirit and she may find new traditions.

This book is like reading a checklist of all diversities. It doesn't feel realistic, nor does it flow. The characters sound pretentious and grating...they are all named after trees...I will not be recommending this book.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming funny story. I loved visiting the wonderful Lottery family again! I think Sumac and I are kindred souls ;-)

[Delia]

good

[Zoom · Rating 2 out of 5]

The protagonist is an adopted 9 year old girl named Sumac who lives with her four gay parents, her six siblings who are all named after trees (including a misgendered and dead-named transgender 4-year-old), her demented grandfather, a Brazilian couchsurfer, two cats and an African Grey parrot who was rescued from an illegal importer. Everybody's either Indian from India or Inuit or atheist or Buddhist or living with Alzheimers or brain-damaged from being shaken as a baby before they were adopted.

I like diversity as much as the next guy, but even I was rolling my eyes at how contrived this book was. I think diversity should be the backdrop for a story- it should be subtle. Unfortunately it dominates and overpowers this story. Actually, there's very little story here...no plot. The moral of the story is "different is good" and we're gonna clobber you over the head with it on every single page.

[Adele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps not quite as good as The Lotterys Plus One but still highly enjoyable. Throughout this book we are exposed to a variety of cultures, mostly through their food, which is not as interesting to me as the unique culture of this family, but still fun. Sumac narrates this one as well and she remains sometimes exasperating and definitely flawed, but still endearing and sympathetic for me. I could totally relate to one parent having assumed the responsibility for certain things for so long even the other adults are kind of floundering when he goes away, even before there is a major crisis. I loved the twist with the generator - both believable and extremely funny I think.

[Jai · Rating 3 out of 5]

similar comments to Book 1 - cute, but feels a little forced. glad that the family finally has the pronoun conversation with Brian, but this should have happened early in Book 1 so the reader doesn’t think she’s being misgendered throughout. I do hope for more in the series, though - it’s so charming & cozy.

[Mireille Duval · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good follow-up to the previous one. I liked how it showed that the four parents are absolutely necessary to make the house work, and that the lack of one of them throws the whole thing out of order!

[Hazel (and Nutsy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this one had just as good a story line as the first one, which is hard t do, so props to the author for that. I think the characters are cute, and they started to have a bit more distinction in this book compared to the last one when they all seemed the same. I think it was good how she ackknowledged that Brian is ok being called a she, but I think they should have done that a long time ago so I wouldn't have to read a book and a half wondering. I think they blew by some big events, and just summed them up in like two pages, and I wish I could've gotten more. The author tricked you into thinking that something would be a big big event in the story, but then cut it short, which I was dissatisfied with. Overall I think it touched on some good topics, but the actual writing wasn't the best.

[Guillermo Andrade Uribe · Rating 2 out of 5]

CAWPILE: 4/10 - 2.5/5

Esta novela fue MUY difícil para mí de calificar.

Es una novela LGBTQIA+ que se enfoca en una familia "mezclada", hay dos sets de papás que están juntos en la misma familia, y tiene 7 hijos, algunos adoptados y otros biológicos.

Leí una reseña que decía "este libro es como un check list de representación", y por momentos se siente así, y al no saber que este era el libro dos de una serie me sentí medio perdido por momentos.

Igual hay un personaje, es un niño de le calculo 6-7 años, que dijo que es niño, y hasta le cambiaron el nombre a Brian, pero le seguían diciendo "ella", hay una conversación breve en el texto acerca de esto cosa que lo "salvo", pero sigue siendo algo difícil.

No sé, no creo seguir con la serie y no lo recomendaría.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast paced, rollicking large family domestic adventure. Underlying security blanket of goodwill and acceptance amid comical family mini dramas.

Back in the way back when I was a librarian I would have been delighted to recommend this as a view into alternative family life depicted in a healthy loving tone.

Maybe more adults I know should read this to experience what it might have felt to grown up in a loving mixed up family where race, test scores, personality traits and gender issues took a back seat to LOVE!

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lotterys must touch a nerve of nostalgia with me as I love these books and their quirky charm. 'The Lottery More or Less' reads as a perfect fable for our current Covid-19 season of coping amid minor frustrations. Their adventures remind me of a very old book named 'Eight Cousins' that was a comfort to me in my childhood and a window into doing things a bit differently as a family but still being a loving and stable base.
I continue to be mystified why well written Canadian books score so low on the Goodreads ratings. This series is clearly under valued so far.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m not even marking this as read, because technically I didn’t read the whole thing. I skipped forward hoping it would get better.

Look, kids aren’t dumb. They know when you’re trying to cram moral after moral; lesson after lesson down their throat. Give it a rest. I was embarrassed reading how hard the author beats the reader over the head. We get it. Work a bit more on subtlety.

🙄

[capricornreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I would like to live in such a large family, but I do love vicariously living through the Lotterys once in a while.

Also, I keep seeing adults being mad in reviews for these books, saying that "it's just a diversity checklist" and to that I say: 1. your life must be so boring, and 2. responses like yours are exactly why we need more diverse representation in media

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has a bit more of a plot than the first book, but they’re still misgendering Brian, Sumac is even more insufferable than in the first book, and the dialogue is still crammed unnaturally with interesting facts and cultural references. Donoghue should stick to adult books.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please Ms. Donoghue - another! Love the Lotterys!

[Shelley Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another sweet installment in this series. I was kind of hoping that each book would be narrated by different characters, but I'm also okay continuing with Sumac. She's sweet and nerdy and does seem like she has a lot to learn about being flexible and going with the flow. I felt like the conflict in this book was similar to the conflict in the first book - that the regular family routine is being interrupted, which stresses Sumac out. I guess that's consistent for her character.

I would say that my biggest disappointment in this story was that Papadum and Sic were in India for the whole thing, and they added in the couch surfer instead. I was looking forward to more whole-family interactions, and maybe that's too much to expect with a family of 12 people, but I didn't really want to learn about a whole new person who wasn't part of the family and probably won't come back in the future.

Since we met more neighbors in this book, it made me wonder if Toronto is really as diverse as the book makes it seem. In their neighborhood, the Lotterys don't seem unusual in their diversity, just unusual for having 4 parents and the kids not going to school.

Maybe it's because I'm an adult, but I really appreciated all the insights into how the parents manage the family and establish rules and expectations. Every now and then, there was a scene that made me think about that, and I liked it.

I'm using this for the Popsugar Challenge 2019, a book about a family.

Edited to add: I just read the other reviews of this book on Goodreads and was surprised by how much dislike there is for this book/series! The characters are over-the-top quirky, but I felt like that was actually toned down in this book vs the first. And people sure seem unhappy about all the diversity and how unrealistic it is. I thought it was just a sweet story in an idealized world, kind of a nice refreshing break from the real world. I guess that answers my question about the diversity of Toronto, though.

[Miz Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lotterys are two sets of gay/lesbian couples who won the lottery and are co-parenting seven children in a huge old house in Toronto. In this second installment of the series, nine-year-old Sumac is desperate to maintain all of the family's holiday traditions, an eclectic assortment of pagan, ancient, and secular Christmas celebrations. A fierce winter storm is making it difficult to do so. With one parent and oldest sibling stuck in India, the power out at home, and a couch-surfer from Brazil injured in a "sledding" accident, Sumac is forced to learn to become comfortable with impromptu change and new traditions. I was looking for something seasonal to read and this fit the bill. I did enjoy the Canadian setting (though there seemed little beyond the snow that really marked it as Toronto) and the diversity of traditions. The diversity of the Lotterys themselves -- as well as their neighbors -- was interesting but there were so many characters it was difficult to keep track of them all and the diversity began to seem like everything but the kitchen sink was just being thrown in. I am not a fan of the present tense particularly in a book like this that is more about the characters than the action. Though I could relate to Sumac's desire to keep all her favorite traditions the same as always, I didn't find myself connecting emotionally to any of the characters. Though I enjoyed it well enough as a holiday read, especially for the eclectic holidays celebrated, I have no particular desire to revisit the Lotterys.

Book Pairings:
Though I haven't read them since I was a kid, I loved the All-of-a-Kind Family series and Little Women for family stories.

More recently Hilary McKay's Casson Family books really drew me in with the characters.

[Namratha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in THE LOTTERYS series and if like me, you haven’t read the first book but were enchanted by the simple yet layered charm of the blurb and the cover, a little background information is needed.

The Lottery family consists of two gay fathers and two gay mothers who join hands and the unexpected windfall of a lottery to set up a rambling old house (Camelottery) in Toronto with their huge family (comprising seven [a few biological and a few adopted] children AND a grumpy and oft-times, politically incorrect grandfather).

The setting for the current story is slap bang in the middle of the holiday season. The story is told from the POV of nine-year-old Sumac, who is wise, a tad pedantic and the keeper of the Lottery's household memories. She wants to ensure that the family has a traditional Lottery Holiday celebration with all the pagan, secular and traditional Christmas activities. However, with one part of the family unit still in India, things seem a bit incomplete. Add to that a freakishly intense ice-storm that brings down the electricity in half of Ontario and Sumac’s best laid plans might not actually transpire.

The biggest selling point (and sometimes, bugbear) of the Lottery series is its massive nod to diversity. It tries, sometimes a bit too hard, to cater to an audience who has been subjected to mainstream tropes for a very long time. In the process of being open and receptive to alternative and modern lifestyles, it tends to be a bit pretentious, gimmicky, idealistic and unbelievable in some situations.

But setting that issue aside, it is a cozy, seasonal read and you won’t be disappointed.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lotterys are definitely not the typical family. As I mentioned in my review of the first book in this series, the fact that the youngsters are named after trees is strange enough, but some of their behavior can be offputting. Still, I liked this one better than the first one--or maybe the family is just growing on me. I do think it's great to have two mothers, two fathers, and a large cast of child characters, all of whom are developing in their own way. In this, the second in the series, nine-year-old Sumac Lottery is eagerly anticipating all the festivities and traditions associated with the Christmas holiday, but nothing turns out the way she had planned. But an ice storm prevents PapaDum and Sic from flying home from India on time, the electricity goes out so there can be little cooking, and their house guest from Brazil is injured, her sister Catalpa has a huge crush on that guest, and everyone's going a little stir crazy. Although this is not how she planned to spent the holidays, Sumac learns to adjust and find at least a little joy in the different ways the family ends up spending those free days. It's rather funny that a family that is so unconventional is conventional in its own way and has someone like Sumac who is stuck on traditions. Fans of the series will enjoy this title. I enjoyed seeing some of the characters become more fleshed out, something that I expect will continue to happen over the course of the series.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars. We did this as a read-aloud, and my girls love the lotterys. They are a very “modern” family (2 moms, 2 dads, a mixture of bio and adopted kids, multiple ethnicities, etc) but their stories have a wonderful, old-fashioned feel. They are mostly about family life and relationships, the little things that are really big things. I particularly like the role of adults in these books. The adults aren’t absent or malevolent, as in most children’s books. Instead they are present, but empowering. They are there to help the kids learn, offer advice, and occasionally meet out consequences, but always with love and respect. You don’t notice how rare that is in children’s books until you see it. I am glad we got to meet the Lotterys!

[Grace MacLaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emma Donoghue is a good writer. But this was WAY too precious and wholesome for my tastes. Also, I have trouble imagining that any kids would like it, and I would never buy it for a school library.

Also, the pop culture references were really bizarre. For example, we have the Quvenzhané Wallis Annie. I think was Donoghue trying to be hip and contemporary and woke by referencing this version and not another one. But...that movie does not exist, and I'm not sure that anyone actually liked it? And then you have references to the musical Oliver!, which just feels very out of touch and dated. It was pretty cringe, to be honest.

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my! The author and publishers total disregard to children's safety is just shocking. I understand all the issues about this series and they have been well discussed by other viewers, but for the book to contain such a dangerous and possibly deadly game/sport and thus suggest the idea to young readers is completely negligent. For that reason alone I don't believe any children should read this book. Also a note for the illustrator Caroline Hadilaksono, the publisher, and author: This book is set in Ottawa Canada just before the Christmas holidays. It is winter at that time and catalpa trees do not have any leaves on them. Really folks did you proof this book?

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter (age 10) and I started this one in November (as it's a holiday book) and we didn't finish until January. It was a good read but not as fun as the first Lotterys book. I felt the story seemed to drag out and the chapters are incredibly long. One thing I really appreciate in these books is the amount of diversity and beliefs that readers can learn about. The author has done a great job to write about (and therefore normalizing) subjects like gay marriage and even gender preferences. She also does a great job celebrating all cultures. I appreciate this.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holy blended family! There are a lot of characters ( a list would be handy) and there is a lot of holiday time activity. I enjoyed trying to keep track! I thought the names for places in the home were clever, too. In fact, I think a map of the house in the sleeve of the book would be cool! Examples: Artic and Sock Heaven. My favorite quotes:
Welcome is the best dish on the table. (dedication)
The climate is what we expect; The weather is what we get. (p.271)
Not to be disturbed by disturbances or distracted by distractions. (p. 83)

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute storyline i read this during christmas break so it matched the vibe of the holiday spirit. Sumac is very much a spirited, smart, and just a girl girl trying to survive the storm that has come upon Camelottery. It's so awesome and heartwarming to see a tween's POV and I can relate to some of it too. How she works around with her family & neighbours is so warming in the freezing storm and I feel for her struggles and feelings. the plot and the characters is so perfect and this would be for all kids.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second book about the Lotterys.
The fifth child, Sumac, is the main character in this story. The December holidays are not going as planned and she tries to keep traditions alive as best she can. She discovers what really matters is being together.
Two family members are stranded in India; an ice storm cancel plans and causes major power outages; a visitor is injured and needs care. All these events create havoc in their unconventional lives.
A liberal family version of Cheaper by the Dozen.

[Molly Ferguson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had all the ingredients to be such a special book - it's about a nontraditional family that includes several different ethnicities, children by adoption, a gender non-conforming child - however, it simply wasn't. The story fell flat and my daughter couldn't get into it. The chapters are super-long, so maybe it's for much older kids, though the artwork suggests a younger audience. It's such a good idea, and there are moments of the Donoghue I love, but it just never came together.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lotterys More or Less was enjoyable but not quite as good as the first book in the series. I liked new character Luiz, I'm glad Brian was finally asked flat-out about preferred pronouns, and Sumac's character development is excellent and very relatable. However, the plot this time around seemed less cohesive, and a lot of the family members seemed to blur together in a way they didn't in the last book.