Olivia Bean has always been obsessed with trivia, and especially with Jeopardy, which she used to watch with her father before he ran off with Olivia’s best friend’s mom and started a new life in California. Now Olivia is left to fend for herself in the school cafeteria, as her best friend is gone and not speaking to her, and at home, she’s having trouble adjusting to Neil, her mom’s new beau who has recently moved in. While constantly waiting for her father to call, and trying to protect her little brother Charlie from the truth of their family troubles, Olivia also puzzles over the behavior of her next door neighbor, Tucker, and desperately looks for a way to get on her favorite show during Kids Week.
As my wordy summary no doubt suggests, this is a story with a lot going on. Olivia has an internal life, a family life, and a school life, and each one plays a significant role in the overarching plot, which is not just about trivia, but about Olivia taking control of her destiny and letting go of the anger she feels toward her dad, while also forgiving Tucker’s past bad deeds and accepting her new family as they are. Olivia’s struggles, and her frustrations with the way she is treated by people who are supposed to love her the most, are very real, and well-described. Her situation is not uncommon in twenty-first century families, and the story does a nice job of depicting reality rather than sugar-coating it. Some plot threads are tied up better than others, and I did find myself thinking that the author may have tried to take on too many things in one book, but even so, I enjoyed Olivia so much as a narrator it almost didn’t matter.
In fact, I think character development is probably the strongest aspect of Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen. Gephart’s descriptions of each character painted a picture in my mind which made me feel as though I knew each one and made it easy to visualize them very clearly. The trivia theme and Jeopardy references amused me as well, but what truly keeps things moving along is the reader’s investment in Olivia and her desire to have a chance to prove herself.
This book will definitely speak to girls who do well in school, and who enjoy trivia and watch Jeopardy themselves, but it covers enough universal ideas that I think most tween realistic fiction readers will find something in it to appreciate. Read-alikes for this book include The Clueless Girl’s Guide to Being a Genius, because of its brainy main character, Bigger Than a Breadbox, because of its strained family dynamics, and the Katie Jordan books, which include another wonderfully sweet younger brother.
Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen will be published on March 13, 2012.
I received a digital ARC of Olivia Be
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