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The Higher Power of Lucky

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
BONUS FEATURE: EXCLUSIVE AUTHOR INTERVIEW
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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    • AudioFile Magazine
      This 2006 Newbery winner is filled with superb characterizations, and the talented Cassandra Campbell turns each into a splendid dramatic opportunity. The eccentric heroine is 10-year-old Lucky, who entertains herself by eavesdropping on AA meetings at the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center. Campbell slips into the Southern drawl of one of the "anonymous people" who talk about a "Higher Power" and subtly communicates Lucky's own longing for support. Campbell gives Lucky's beautiful guardian, Brigitte, a French accent and a tone of vagueness that makes Lucky wonder if Brigitte might leave. Campbell enlivens fascinating characters, like Lucky's knot-artist friend, Lincoln, and gives Lucky depth as she reveals her unresolved grief over her mother's death. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 12, 2007
      Patron's poignant Newbery-winning story about a girl who fears being abandoned by her legal guardian—and her only semblance of a family—sails along with believable childlike rhythms and kid's-eye-view observations. Listeners will especially appreciate Campbell's subtlety and smooth, comforting delivery in a heartbreaking scene in which 10-year-old Lucky recalls, with gentle support from her best friend, her deceased mother's memorial service. On the remainder of the recording, Campbell remains a welcoming guide to Lucky's world—populated by eccentric friends, the quirky townspeople of tiny, struggling Hard Pan, Calif.—and Brigitte, the guardian she desperately wants to keep, maybe with some help from a Higher Power. Campbell appropriately gives recent Parisian transplant Brigitte a French accent, though it's thankfully never overplayed. By program's end, listeners will be rooting for Lucky and Brigitte to remain together forever. Contains an interview with the author, in which Patron says she is working on a companion novel. Ages 9-up.

    • School Library Journal

      May 1, 2007
      Gr 4-6 -Ten-year-old Lucky is sure that if she finds her Higher Power she will gain special insight into her life, just like the people she eavesdrops on at the Anonymous meetings. Lucky knows about the uncertainty of life because she lost her mother in a sudden accident two years ago and her guardian, Brigitte, is homesick for France. Hard Pan, California, population 43, is a unique and sometimes harsh place, but Lucky loves life at the edge of the desert with people that she knows and loves. The youngster wants to be a scientist and has so many questions in the crevices of her brain. Her motto is to stay alert and to carry a survival kit at all times because things happen when you least expect them. When she thinks that Brigitte plans to leave, Lucky knows she has hit rock bottom and must run away, although things don't turn out the way she plans. Narrator Cassandra Campbell brings Susan Patron's Newbery Award-winning novel (Atheneum, 2006) to life, giving each character a slightly different, expressive voice. Brigitte's soft French accent and Lucky's earnest longing and unique view of life are especially captivating. The novel addresses difficult topics such as death, absent parents, and addiction with realism, humor, and wonder, making the overall message one of hope and love.Teresa Wittmann, Westgate Elementary School, Edmonds, WA

      Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 6, 2006
      Patron's (Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe) often poignant novel introduces 10-year-old Lucky, who lives in the California desert town of Hard Pan. After her mother died, Lucky's estranged father asked his former first wife, Brigitte, to travel from France and act as Lucky's guardian. The author's third-person narrative gently adheres to a child's perspective and reveals the warm relationship between Lucky and Brigitte. As the heroine goes about her work at the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center, she eavesdrops on the meetings of various 12-step programs held there, listening to "the anonymous people" talk about hitting rock bottom and then gaining control of their lives through a Higher Power. If she could find her own Higher Power, Lucky feels "pretty sure she'd be able to figure out the difference between the things she could change and the things she couldn't." One thing she hopes will not change is her life with Brigitte, whom she fears will return to her much-missed homeland and leave Lucky with a foster family. Through her search for an HP, Lucky makes a few discoveries-such as the true identity of "the crematory man," who handed her an urn bearing her mother's ashes at the funeral, and the hidden talents of her knot-tying friend Lincoln. When Lucky hits her "rock bottom," she decides to run away with her beloved dog during a dust storm, a risky move that leads to an uplifting denouement. Though Lucky's ponderings sometimes grow repetitive, the sympathetic, pleasingly quirky characters define this tightly-knit hardscrabble community, affectionately portrayed in Phelan's half-tone illustrations. Ages 9-11.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:5.9
  • Lexile® Measure:950
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:5-6

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