The book, The Lottery Rose, by Irene Hunt is a realistic fiction. It tells about an abused boy who does not trust anyone. But all that changes when he wins the rosebush. After he wins it he gets taken away from the abusive people to a better place where he very slowly learns to trust and finally to love.
In, The Lottery Rose, there is one main character and two supporting characters. The main character is Georgie Burgess, a seven and a half year old boy who was abused for years by his mother's boyfriend Steve. Georgie is very hateful, untrusting, and even mean at first, but after he gets to the children's home, slowly, very slowly he begins to learn empathy for other people. One of the supporting characters was Sister Mary Angela, the head nun at the children's house where Georgie stayed. She helped him learn to trust other people and make friends. It was her that started Georgie down the path of love. The other supporting character was Mrs. Harper, a pretty woman who lived across the street from the children's house. At first she and Georgie didn't like each other at all. But when she did begin to like Georgie, it was much faster than Georgie began to like her.
The story is set in Tampa, Florida in the 1970s where Georgie lives, and then he is moved to a school in the countryside of Florida. I think the setting is important because it is home to many of the flowers from the book Georgie loves so much. It also provides a friendly environment for Georgie to live in while he learns to trust. The setting is also similar to Georgie's home so he feels comfortable. .
The story starts out with Georgie in school, were he does extremely poorly. He then goes home and happily finds that Steve is not there but his constantly drunk mom is so he leaves and goes to the super market for groceries. There he learns about the lottery and gets a ticket, knowing he"ll win and he does win, he wins a rosebush, the thing that Georgie first puts love into, but when gets home Steve is there almost beats him to death.
