The Higher Power of Lucky

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• The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron 
• Interest Level: Grades 4-7
• Reading Level: 5+

Ten year old Lucky's mom has died in a freak accident. Her absent father has arranged for his French ex-wife, Brigette, to come to California so that she can act as Lucky's guardian. Lucky is worried that Brigette might leave at any time to return to France and this has Lucky's searching for her Higher Power, which she's learned of from listening on the twelve-step meetings she cleans up after and feeling that she's hit her rock bottom.

The story is set in Hard Pan (pop. 43), a town in the Mojave where many quirky characters live. Lucky decides to run away during a dust storm and while hiding in an old mining cave she finds 5-year old Miles- also motherless- and must save him from the storm. Here she learns what it means to care for another and to be cared for by those who love her. This is a gentle story that readers of Betty Birney's Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs will thoroughly enjoy.

Patron, S. (2006). The Higher Power of Lucky. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.