Newbery Award: The Higher Power of Lucky

The Higher Power of Lucky
by  Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan

2007 Newbery Medal Winner

This was a very interesting book about a little orphan girl named Lucky.  Her mom was killed by a downed power line, and her father “didn’t like children,” so her somewhat stepmother became her “Guardian” as Lucky referred to her.  Throughout the story, Lucky is worried about Brigette, her “Guardian,” not liking her and wanting to go back to her home in France.  Her main friends, Lincoln (a little boy obsessed with tying knots over and over) and Miles (a kindergartner that loves the book “Are You My Mother?” and to make strange sounds) keep her mind on other things, like school and her job cleaning up the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center, otherwise known for hosting “anonymous” meetings.  However, one day, Lucky thinks that Brigette is going to leave her behind and go back to France when she finds a suitcase of legal papers and her passport.  Lucky decides to run away in search of her “higher power,” and does so after seeing “signs” that mean she should.  During a massive dust storm, she decides to run away.  She comes across many obstacles along the way, including finding Miles on the road after he stepped on something sharp and got lost.  The two take shelter in an abandoned mine, along with Lucky’s dog HMS Beagle, and are eventually found by Lincoln and, shortly thereafter, the rest of the town.  In the end, Brigette explains to Lucky that she was going to legally adopt her and open a café, and was not going to leave Lucky behind.

At first, I was horrified when I began to read about Lucky running away.  To me, Lucky seems like many 4th or 5th grade students I have met, and my thought process was basically along the lines of this: "If students see that this book won awards and the main character RAN AWAY, how likely are they to jump to conclusions when life gets hard and to do the same?"  I work in a school that is very transient, and I would not put it past some of these kids to run away when things are not easy.  However, the story worked out nicely, and hopefully if students read this story they will realize that they, like Lucky, might misunderstand adults and their intentions sometimes, and that running away is NEVER the right answer.

Although the story did scare me a bit, I did like the language that it was told in--very reader-friendly for upper elementary students.  It was a short read as well, which is always good when trying to keep the attention span of this age group.