Musical Moments: Song of the Month: September: Chosen by Keren David

Title: Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery
Author: Keren David
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books
Publication Date: 4 Aug 2011

Synopsis: From Amazon

Money can’t buy you love. But it can buy many other very nice things. Lia’s mum is a nag, her sister’s a pain and she’s getting nowhere in pursuit of the potentially paranormal Raf. Then she wins £8 million in the lottery, and suddenly everything is different. But will Lia’s fortune create more problems than it solves? Everyone dreams of winning the lottery - but what’s it really like? Find out in this hilarious story by Keren David, whose acclaimed debut novel, When I Was Joe, was Highly Commended for the Booktrust Teenage Prize.

Review here

It is my pleasure to welcome Keren David to pick this months Song of the Month - Enjoy

I’ve been trying to think of a song that sums up my new book Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery. The one I’ve chosen is KT Tunstall’s Suddenly I See.

 

For me, this song is all about the difference between the way that young women feel and they way they are perceived by the world. For the outside we think they are beautiful, confident, outspoken, full of power and potential -  almost dangerous.

But inside they are harshly self-critical and rarely appreciate their own strengths. They’re always looking at others and wishing they could be as beautiful, clever

and assured as almost anyone else.

They want to be famous, they crave attention. But they also want to hide all the flaws they know are there. When Lia wins the lottery she is suddenly at the middle of a media storm - she loves it and yet hates it too.

Lia seems confident, obnoxious and, frankly, annoying. But inside she’s constantly doubting herself, secretly jealous of her little sister's talent and sweet nature and envious of her friend Shazia’s certainty about her life choices and ambition. Shazia knows where she’s going in life, Lia’s a little bit lost. She doesn’t know what to do with her life, she doesn’t know what her values are. Winning the lottery in a way is a metaphor for all that powerful potential -  and it helps Lia find her path.

‘Suddenly I see

This is what I wanna be

Suddenly I see

Why the hell it means so much to me.’

I remember moments in my teenage years when I suddenly glimpsed what I wanted to be…and why the hell it meant so much to me. Being a teenage girl isn’t fun most of the time - you’re too busy putting yourself down and stressing about everything, bitching and fighting and crying – oh, the crying! - to understand that someone might be looking at you and seeing a beautiful girl.  But when you get that feeling that you might be…say…a writer, that perhaps a nice boy might find you attractive, that you can be nice as well as nasty, it gives you strength to struggle on.

‘She got the power to be

The power to give

The power to see’

Winning the lottery makes Lia feel powerful - and then realise she had power all along. We all have the power to be, to give and to see things that need changing in the world - and then do whatever we can to change them.