Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen

by Donna Gephart

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Age group: 9+
Type: realistic fiction

Olivia Bean stinks at geography. However, she watches Jeopardy! every night and usually beats at least one player. Her parents are divorced, and she lives with her mom, her mom's boyfriend Neil,  and her brother, Charlie. Her dad ran away with her best friend's mom and now they all live in California. There's this boy at her school, Tucker Thomas, who's her kind-of-friend, and he tells her about a contest to be on Jeopardy! Kids Week. Olivia just HAS to sign up. Her family is going through some financial troubles at the moment, and she is determined to win--not only for the money, but because it's filmed in CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA, which is really close to Los Angeles, where her dad lives. She gets in, but the competition is fierce... and her dad doesn't always keep his promises. Will everything work out in the end???

This book is okay. I only gave it three stars because there are some parts that are kind of strange. Like there is a time when the Internet is turned off, and there is 10 minutes to the test to get on Jeopardy! and so she has to run to Tucker Thomas's house. The author tries to make action here, and she sort of succeeds, but it's kind of strange having a climax before anything really happens. But the writing is pretty realistic, and it is nice how the chapters are each phrased as a question. And it is nice how at first Olivia doesn't like Neil at all because he is replacing her dad, but eventually she warms up to him.

PARENTAL SECTION
Sexual parts: no
Violence: no
Fighting: not that much.
Kissing/romance: maybe a little bit. Not really.
Pregnancy: no!!
Stealing: no
Vandalizing: no
**There is one part when Olivia's dad swears (the d-word) and another where he might possibly be drunk.