Chances (novel) blackout, a real event that Collins describes in some detail affects all the major characters either directly or indirectly. Gino's story begins in 1921 but backtracks to narrate details of when Gino's parent's, Paulo and Mira Santangelo emigrated to New York City from Italy in 1909 when Gino was three. From an early age, Gino takes to a life of crime, stealing a car at the age of fifteen and ending up in a juvenile home. Chances (novel) Chances is a 1981 novel by Jackie Collins and the first in her "Santangelo" novels series. The novel has three focal points,
Boss of the Pool an example of "children's and youth literature becoming more confronting and realistic", addressing a range of conditions "either as a primary or more frequently as a secondary theme", along with Two Weeks with The Queen (1989) by Morris Gleitzman, which addresses AIDS and cancer. She notes "Boss of the Pool" (1986) "sensitively" tackles "intellectual disabilitites and learning difficulties". Jenny Kendrick describes it as one of a number of "books in which the character with learning difficulties is not allowed to evolve at all, and is merely a vehicle for the development of the other child or children". Some of these