Lucky Breaks

Author: Susan Patron

First line: Eleven, Lucky thought from her seat at the back of the school bus, eleven, eleven, eleven, and the idea of it, the sound of it, threw off sparks in her head.

Why you should read this book: Now that she's almost, almost eleven and has an officially adopted new mom, Lucky has big, grown-up things to worry about, like her best friend Lincoln disappearing to England on the basis of his superb knot-tying skills, and the coffin-like package delivered to Short Sammy's water tank, and a tragically romantic lost artifact at the bottom of an abandoned mine, and the gland inside her that occasionally makes her do something mean and shameful, and the self-conscious question of how her life appears to people from outside Hard Pan. When a group of big-city geologists show up at her mom's new cafe, Lucky finds something a growing girl needs: a best girl friend who can make her laugh until it hurts and doesn't mind a little adventure now and then. This sequel to the Newbery winner The Higher Power of Lucky is another smart, introspective voyage through the mind of an intelligent child forging her way across a rich and rocky landscape of youthful desire and wonder.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Fear of the rampaging wild donkey, devastator of innocent desert tomato plants.



(Note: Susan Patron kindly sent me an advanced reader's copy of this book, which will be commercially available March 10. Orders placed through Amazon before that date will be shipped next month when the book is released.)