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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: $5.60
You Save: $11.35 (67%)
New (55) Used (33) Collectible (5) from $5.22
Avg. Customer Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 17070
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
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: NICE COPY, NO UGLY REMAINDER MARKS.
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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 67 more reviews...
 5th Grade Teacher's Class loved this book July 19, 2008
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.
Worth Reading June 29, 2008
Just read this book today. Definately worth reading as the characters are interesting and the book touches upon a wide variety of societal issues that could create opportunities for discussion for child reader and parent(s). Bit surprised at all the apparent "controversy" described here on Amazon about this book. Wondering what parents of male children told their 3 or 4 year old sons when they asked about their anatomy. Used cutesy words instead of advising them they were male and because of this they had a scrotum and a penis? Weird. Also, the idea nine to tweleve year olds (target audience) need to be shielded from Lucky's possible crush on her friend Lincoln seems odd as does the idea that kids must be shielded from the existence of the very Tweleve Step programs they may need to someday recommend to friends, family members or spouses seems odd to me too. Should one be ashamed grandma (example from book) stopped smoking and never let your kids find out she goes to Twelve Step meetings else they might find out some people actually smoke and need hep to quit? Also weird. Anyway, book and characters are great, book has some plot flaws and some contrived/cliche scenes (the ashes on the desert wind scene for example) and devices but not so much that its not worth the read.
not just for kids June 17, 2008
lucky is a 10 year-old orphan girl, living in a tiny california high desert down (population 43). her mom died a couple years ago, and she doesn't know her dad at all; but he sends for his first wife in france, to come take care of lucky. her tiny little world is weighing heavily on lucky and her search for meaning, stability and belonging.
the "higher power" in the title comes from lucky's part-time job of cleaning up after the various twelve-step groups that meet at a local "museum" (in quotes, because it's an exaggeration). she listens in to everyone's stories, and hears them all tell of finding their higher power, and assumes she is on a search for her own. at the end of the day, her search for a higher power is really a search for belonging.
a beautifully told story, full of wit and whimsy and insight, crazy characters and imagination, and full of that un-self-consciousness, innocence and wonder found in children. a wonderful little book.
Disconcerting May 27, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As I have said in other places before, you can always count on a Newbery award winner to be a good read. They also have a higher probability than usual of being truly great novels to come back to again and again. This one, unfortunately, does not reach that level for me.
That's not to say it's a poor story. Not at all. It's a very moving story of a girl living in a town/trailer park out in the desert. Her father has never been around and her mother was killed some time back in a freak accident after a storm. She is looking for some stability in her life through a search for her "higher power," namely in the form of Brigitte--another of her father's wives who has relocated (temporarily?) from France to take care of her. The book also benefits from great characters. Not only Lucky, the main character and narrator, but a cast of eccentrics that populate this strange wasteland.
There's really only one main thing that keeps me from giving this book my full endorsement: I'm not sure I'd feel really comfortable letting my young daughter read it. Talk about scrotums on the first page clued me in that this was going to be a bit rougher going than usual for me. This was quickly followed by Lucky's observations of twelve step programs for drunks, smokers and over-eaters. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination but I also don't go out of my way to expose my child to unpleasantness. None of this kind of talk is something I'd really want to expose her to at the age for which this book seems to be aiming.
That's too bad because there is a lot of great stuff to be found in this novel. And its realism despite the eccentricities of the characters is one of the things that works really well. Perhaps when my daughter does get to be a pre-teen I'll feel differently but there are some many other books I'd rather her read at that age before this one.
 A good book, but not for the young or sensitive April 28, 2008
As a grown-up I liked this book, but as a parent of children 6-13 I didn't feel it was good for my kids. I could care less about real words, like "scrotum"--in fact it got my attention and chortle, but my kids didn't dwell on it. I was glad I was listening alone in the car for the chapter where Lucky opens the urn containing her mother's remains and determines that the remains are chips of her mother's bones. I was also really uncomfortable with the sexualization of Lucky toward Lincoln.
This book requires a maturity I don't believe is present in the target age group (9-12). I can see it being okay for teens, but the main character is young to attract the attention of that group.
If you are an adult and like juvenile fiction and Newberry-winners, read it or listen to it. It is enjoyable and amazingly sad and funny and grapples with the forces of good and evil within. If you want your kids to listen to it, you should probably be with them. It covers some very difficult themes and topics. It is definitely not for the sensitive.
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