The Higher Power of Lucky ~ Susan Patron

note: this is a book I read several months back, late winter/spring, maybe. Wrote a quick reaction about it then, and so am including that here now.

This won the 2007 Newbery. Got all sorts of press and controversy because it uses the word scrotum in the first few pages [just need to get that out there right away…].

Lucky is an 11? 12? (can’t remember right now and I don’t have the book in front of me anymore) year old girl, living out in what seems like a totally barren dry dusty wasteland – out in the middle of nowhere in California. Her mom is dead and she is being cared for by her dad’s ex-wife. She is really anxious because the arrangement might be temporary, but she really likes Brigitte (the dad’s ex-wife), and wants Brigitte to want to stay with her.

So Lucky is just this kid, living in a whacked out community in the desert, and a fun part of the book is the slightly disreputable cast of characters in this town she lives in (barely a town, really, but, I think my use of the word community is telling – in spite of the remote, small, weird nature, this odd array of people is in some way a community, and it matters to Lucky to be a part of it). Ultimately, I think the book is about her desire for some stability. Her need to know that she is safe and that she is not going to be shipped off to foster care.

This was a good, though not great, read. I liked Lucky and thought she was a fun and interesting character – and, I think that while the book is told in the third person, we are seeing the world through Lucky’s eyes (I’m stretching here, adding this part to this reaction I wrote a long time ago, and not totally sure I am getting it right), and because of Lucky’s character and particular perspective, this works and makes the book more fun and engaging.

More of a younger young adult book. And, in spite of the word scrotum appearing early on, it really is a totally “clean” book.