This is the first book for that age range from Donoghue, a lesbian mom herself, whose 2010 adult novel Room was an international bestseller and shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. The Lotterys Plus One with its blend of family shenanigans, whimsy, and heart, should win her new fans—and Caroline Hadilaksono’s illustrations perfectly capture Donoghue’s whimsical, energetic tone.
The parents, we learn, are two couples who became best friends and decided to have a baby together—then won the lottery, bought a big house in Toronto, grew their family further through childbearing and adoption, and took the mutual surname Lottery. The parents gave up their jobs so they could stay home and teach the children without sending them to school, bringing a hippie-ish and free-range sensibility to the process.
The family’s life of controlled chaos is thrown off-kilter when PopCorn’s father, whom the children have never met, is diagnosed with dementia and must come to live with them. “Grumps,” as the children call him, is curmudgeonly and conservative. Everything about the Lotterys seems to bother him, including their co-parenting arrangement, the fact that the children are all named after trees, and the multigrain pancakes they serve. He’s homophobic and racist, too, albeit more because of old-fashioned assumptions than overt hatred. Still, he’s family, and the arc of the story shows us what can happen when people of different mindsets ultimately learn to find common ground.
The story is told from the perspective of nine-year-old Sumac, the sensible “good girl” among her multiracial, multiethnic, neurodiverse siblings. As the practical one of the family, she’s a good guide for readers as well, translating family slang such as “fleetings” (family meetings) and “Camelottery” (their house), and giving us insight into other family members. The fact of four queer parents is taken as a given and is only one of the many distinctive things about the family.
