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| The Higher Power of Lucky | 
 enlarge | Author: Susan Patron
Creator: Matt Phelan
Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $4.88
You Save: $12.07 (71%)
Buy New from $4.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  (75 reviews)
Sales Rank: 38325
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 1416901949
EAN: 9781416901945
ASIN: 1416901949
Publication Date: November 7, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product 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 hadn't planned on a dust storm. Or needing to lug the world's heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 70 more reviews...
 The Touching Story of an Unlucky Childhood with a Happy Ending November 27, 2008
In this touching story, ten-year-old Lucky overcomes hardships and finds her "higher power." Prudes beware: this book uses the word "scrotum" on the first page! If you dare let your child read it, you may consider blacking out the offensive word before surrendering it to innocent youth. The word is revisited in the last chapter.
For the rest of us, this book is well-deserving of the Newbery award, as it is cute, poignant, and engaging. Although the reading level is appropriate for a 10-year-old, I think most youngsters would have difficulty relating to Lucky's hardships and philosophies. However, even if readers don't fully understand what Lucky must feel like, I think the story can educate kids on the kinds of hardships that many children must endure. Such an education engenders an understanding which can break down social barriers at a young, impressionable age.
I would highly recommend this book for 10-year-old and up.
 Lucky in life, unlikely in logic August 18, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Lucky is an unusual girl, of a sandy brown color from head to toe, who lives in an impoverished little town (population 43) in California with her French foster mother, Bridgette, her parents having divorced, and her mother having died during an electrical storm. Why the (first) ex-wife of an absent father would agree to care for her ex-husband's second ex-wife's child is never explained (nor probably can it be), but by the time the story begins, Bridgette (basically, her "pre" stepmother) has been mothering Lucky for about two years. Lucky's acquaintances include a young boy infatuated with the P.D. Eastman book, Are You My Mother?, and friends include a knot-tying fanatic named Lincoln. Her favorite pastime is eavesdropping on the stories of the local yokels during their Twelve Step Program Meetings (for problems ranging from smoking to drinking and everything in between), and her favorite story is that of recovering alcoholic Sammy-how he hit rock bottom, involving a dog being bit on the, ahem, "scrotum" (why the author chooses this word over the obvious, commonly used slang term is also a mystery), a woman arriving on the scene, a trip to the veterinarian, and a divorce. Lucky believes that if she could just find HER "higher power," things would be get better (also weird since she seems to be sort of an evolutionist, a fan of Charles Darwin, she names her dog HMS Beagle because he goes on science explorations with her). When she sees evidence of what appears to be imminent abandonment, she takes drastic measures and runs away during, of all things, a dust storm (again, nonsensical). When found, she's able to salvage the results of her poor decisions by dreaming up, on the spot, a plausible reason for her being where she shouldn't be, that is, lying. The story is short, the tiny illustrations are unremarkable, and the whole Twelve Step Program angle seems to be a bit advanced for the age of anyone who'd be interested in this easy-to-read but often illogical story. Better: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Anne of Green Gables by by Megan Follows.
 Higher Power of... Wait, Was I Reading Something? August 18, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I read quickly and voraciously. As a children's writer myself, I am very interested in reading, analyzing and enjoying kid lit, especially stuff that's winning honors.
This book didn't hold any appeal for me. It was about 150 pages and large print and I put it down before I could finish because I didn't care about the characters. I didn't learn anything about them and I didn't much get invested in their stories. There's not much plot, there's not much emotion, there's simply not much here.
I eventually forced myself to pick it back up but looked at the page number every few minutes while I read - how quickly could I finish this dud and move on to something better?
For all the talk of a Higher Power, I didn't really figure out what her higher power was at the end. Nor did I care what it was. There is so much out there to read that I'm honestly very sad that I spent a few miserable hours laboring over this collection of forced, "quirky," humorless events in a lame character's life. The only person who's Lucky in this situation is me, because I'm still within the 30-day return window.
It's packed up and shipping back to Amazon today!
 Not For 9 - 11 Year Olds August 6, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Beware if you're a teacher hoping to use this book as a read-aloud for your 4th or 5th grade class. Although the publisher suggests this as the target age group, the themes and language are more appropriate for junior high. The book also seems intended to be read individually (instead of as a read-aloud), since the small drawings are important to make the text more understandable. Although I'd known that the book was about a young girl who who was caught in a hardscrabble life, in my opinion the material wasn't presented in an easily accessible way for 9-11 year olds. This book won't help children make sense of things they might actually be seeing in their lives. In fact, some of the rather off-hand sentences (i.e., scratching a scrotum) are distracting, and not the type of thing a teacher would want the child carrying home for dinnertime conversation.
5th Grade Teacher's Class loved this book July 19, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I am a 5th grade teacher who has read this book to two classes. I am of the opinion that 5th graders in this age are very aware of their anatomy and understand the primary differences between boys and girls. Each time I read the book, I had a boy ask me what a scrotum is. I explained using correct facts and got a few chuckles but mostly nods of understanding from my class. Children need to know the correct names of their parts and there is nothing worng with this word being presented at this age. I can tell you each boy in my class new a slang name not to my surprise.
I also had a boy thank me for reading the "real" words. He told me he thought I was respectful because I knew they were mature enough to hear the whole story.
More importantly, my kids loved this story because the character development is excellent. 23 out of 26 chose it as their favorite book of the year. My class fell in love with these characters. As they worte their own stories after this book, most did a much better job developing their own characters because they saw the importance of good characters in this story. It is time to quit short changing and sheltering our children by reading literature that engages them like the Higher Power of Lucky.
What is the Higher Power of Lucky. I will not share but my students had the most engaging opinion supported conversation I have ever heard 5th graders have after this story was completed.
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