THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY
By Susan Patron
Illustrations by Matt Phelan
Atheneum (Richard Jackson Books), 2007
Category: Middle-grade Fiction
Oh, la-La! This was a roller coaster read.
I picked it up off the new fiction shelf at the library because the cover art appealed to me. And the title was intriguing. What is the higher power of lucky, anyway? My finely tuned senses (ha!) recognized a book with potential; I took it home.
But, alas, the first chapters disappointed me. I had trouble getting into the story. I wasn’t sure I liked the protagonist. And, Good Lord, there were quirky characters appearing left and right! There was Lucky, the ten-year-old protagonist, who is an orphan with a penchant for eavesdropping on seven step meetings. Her friend Lincoln has a serious–almost creepy–affection for knots (yes, knots, as in tied rope), her friend Miles has a cookie fetish and an obvious issue with mother loss, her grown-up friend Short Sammy is a recovering alcoholic who lives in an abandoned water tower, her Guardian Brigette is a homesick French citizen who was once married to Lucky’s father and who apparently agreed to serve as Lucky’s guardian when Lucky’s mother was killed in a freak weather accident. This was all a bit TOO MUCH for me; I thought about quitting.
But then I read chapter four. It’s called “graffiti” and it contains some of the finest show-don’t-tell-ing I have seen in a while. In this chapter, the author showed me the very essence of Lucky and Lincoln and their friendship, and she showed me what life in Hard Pan, California is all about. In the process, she gained my trust. I realized I was in good hands and I committed to the author, her quirky characters, and their story.
The rest of the book was a lovely ride. Lucky believes Brigette is planning to abandon her in order to return to France, and the only way Lucky can think to stop Brigette from going is by running away. But in a place like Hard Pan, even the simple act of running away is quirky and complicated.
THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY is worth a read. If you give it a try, promise me you will hang in there at least until chapter four. And be sure to let me know what you think.