by Susan Patron
Flap Copy description:
Lucky, age ten, can't wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has.
It's all Brigitte's fault - for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she'll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, won't be allowed. She'll have to lose her friends Miles, who lives on cookies, and Lincoln, future U.S. president (maybe) and member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just as bad, she'll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own - and quick.
But she hasn't planned on a dust storm.
Or needing to lug the world's heaviest survival-kit into the desert.
My thoughts:
The Higher Power of Lucky is a delightful middle grade novel, and is the 2007 Newbery Medal Award winner. The well developed colorful characters are what you notice right away. Lucky, a precocious ten-year-old and her pals - a cookie mooch named Miles, and the highly intelligent Lincoln, are extremely entertaining, as well as believable. Deeper issues of abandonment and death are dealt with in this thoughtful book in a tasteful, but powerful way. The author, Susan Patron, is a master at revealing the human heart. A great book for all young readers.
