Ten year old Lucky, who lost her mother due to a senseless accident and whose father disappeared shortly after that, lives with her French guardian Brigitte in Hard Pan California, (pop. 43) She becomes consumed with the notion that Brigitte, who happens to be her father's first wife, will decide to return to France and leave Lucky to be raised in an orphanage.
Lucky secretly listens to discussions of various anonymous 12-step groups as she does her job of clearing debris from the patio of the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center. After listening to their stories, she decides that like many of them she needs to find her own higher power. She also decides that she must run away from Hard Pan, even though it means losing her close friend, Lincoln, who may be the most talented knot-tier in the world and turning her back on five-year-old Miles who just seems to want cookies and be read to, Are you My Mother?
Patron paints characters whose feelings seem genuine and easy to relate to. Even though Lucky faces tough problems she has a refreshing innocence.A few Internet references, such as e-bay and online correspondence courses are the sole things that reminded this reader that the story is a contemporary one. Maybe it’s the small town of 43 that makes Hard Pan and its citizens seem like a story from the past.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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3 comments:
I second!
I like the frankness of the story - the author doesn't sugar coat anything, discussions of sensitive issues like scrotums and mothers-in-jail are open and honest.
Also, Lucky's journey of self awareness and compassion for others is not clean and clear, nor is it tied up nicely at the end. The reader is finished glimpsing her life and her interesting view of it, but Lucky's story seems to keep going. Patron's descriptions of the desert are vivid and smoothly integrated, in the story, as well.
Wow! The Newbery is a real gem this year! Like the beautiful knots tied by Lucky's friend, Lincoln, the author has pulled together several threads: loss of a parent (death or jail), fear of abandonment, search for a higher power, a budding sense of self, and an awesome sense of place. Many times I found myself totally caught up in the innocent and humorous threads of Lucky's narrative only to be blown away in the next sentence by her ability to turn it into something stunning in its beauty and truth.
I can only add, "Amen." I think the committee got it right this year for sure. The illustrations are charming as well.
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