Marjolijn Hof

A neat short story about a young girl Kiki who is fearful when her dad goes off to faraway war zones. Her father is a doctor and is often away, Kiki is now old enough to understand that with his departure comes the danger of him getting killed. No matter how much she tries to convince him not to go, Kiki can't persuade him to stay.
Kiki starts to way up the odds of him getting hit by a stray bullet getting killed. It is a story of fear and innocence associated with that fear and at times the story is quite humourous.
I did not know anyone with a dead dog and a dead father. A dead dog and a dead father! That almost never happened. I looked at Mona. My mother would say that was against the odds. And it would be even more against the odds for someone to have a dead mouse, a dead dog and a dead father.
When Kiki’s father actually does go missing, and as her mother and grandmother get more and more upset, Kiki begins to feel that it's up to her to save him so she starts putting her plan of stacking up the odds in to action. A powerful, sad, yet funny book about what to do when something you've always feared becomes all too real.… (mais)

Summary: "Against the Odds" tells the story of Kiki and how Kiki's dad is a doctor that helps people in dangerous war zones. After Kiki tries to persuade him to stay home and not go on a trip, he leaves anyway. However, Kiki's father soon goes on missing on his trip and her mother tries to explain to her that the odds are very small for her father to die. Throughout the book, Kiki tries to lower her odds of her father dying by having a dead mouse and cat. Soon after, Kiki's father is found but in critical condition due to his car running over a landmine. Doctors try to save her father's leg, but cannot. The story ends with Kiki visiting her father in the hospital and he explains to her that he still wants to be fearless even after everything had happened.

Review: The big idea of the story, "Against the Odds" is Kiki tries to do everything in her power to lessen the odds of her father dying when he goes missing in a dangerous war zone. In my opinion, the book presents a serious situation a child is going through but it shows the innocence of child since Kiki thought she could decrease the chances of her father dying by her pets dying. I enjoyed the book and I loved how in the end she was reunited with her father and how he explains that he never wants to be a man who is afraid of everything.… (mais)