The Lottery Rose

Rating:
Summary: Heart touching and eye opening
Review: Abused, neglected, an appearance to match your life and deprived of happiness and love, little Georgie Burgess redefines the meaning of tough in the novel The Lottery Rose. Your mother is drowned in a sea of alcohol every night and there is no defense for you withstand the menacing blows of her boyfriend those were just some of Georgie's daily issues. There was also his lack of understanding in school, an outside porch to sleep on, and never enough food to eat in the kitchen.
It was a miracle Georgie could manage to stay alive under the circumstances he was forced to live in. However Georgie found a way to hide his hurt and disguise his pain. Instead of running away from home Georgie ran away to the garden and got to feel true happiness with the roses. He had once received a lottery card from a sympathetic employee at the corner market, the prize was a bundle of small dried out roses that Georgie adored and claimed it was the best present in the world when he won them. Georgie knew his mother's boyfriend Steve would not agree with Georgie's present considering he once strangled a small kitten Georgie brought home. Georgie drove Steve crazy and his anger reached its pinnacle when Georgie would scream shrieks of terror every time he saw Steve. One night Steve decided he wasn't going to take it anymore and beat Georgie unconscious. He was shortly rescued by a group of strangers trying to convince him he was going to be ok.
Georgie's real life experience didn't really start until he had left the hospital and his old home and was now under the care of Sister Mary Angela in a private religious school out in the middle of nowhere. Georgie started there as an outcast and very shy of his friendly surroundings. Georgie was not the brightest crayon in the box and the other young boys were taking notice of his unkempt appearance and tormenting him about it. However Georgie did end up making a best friend Timothy who tried nothing more than to befriend Georgie. While at this school Georgie furthered his passion for roses, in fact he still cherished his small bundle of dried roses and chartered them around. It was not long before Georgie spotted the perfect place to plant his roses, what he didn't know was that this would be start of his next major life crisis.
Throughout his very few years of existence Georgie has encountered more obstacles than most adults can account for in their lifetimes. Georgie has been nearly dead and had experienced death. By the end of the novel Georgie had learned not only to give love to his roses and Robin but he can now except love from Mrs. Harper and Sister Mary Angela.
The Lottery Rose is a heart touching novel that causes the reader to connect with Georgie Burgess and share in some of his pain and heartache, but also to respect his strength and defense. It opened my eyes to a world of suffering we so easily block out today. It forced me to analyze the reality of our modern day society and the novel brings new meaning to the phrase: "who said growing up would be easy."