Book Review: The Higher Power Of Lucky

Book Info:

Believing that her French guardian is about to abandon her to an orphanage in the city, ten-year-old Lucky runs away from her small town with her beloved dog by her side in order to trek across the Mojave Desert in this Newbery Medal–winning novel from Susan Patron.

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.

My Thoughts About This Book:

It should be noted that this was a book I picked up on a whim from the early reader's section, in the children's section, of a library. So it is like geared for a younger crowd. With that said I must put a disclaimer that this book deals with some pretty adult topics. Very graphic details of a dog biting a mans scrotum, very descriptive acholic anonymous meetings. I feel like this is a book that parents should read first. 

This book had so much promise to me. When I read the back, I felt a tug in my heart for this girl. Lucky is an eleven-year-old living with her French guardian. She believes that this woman is about to abandon her. This is a feeling that I had growing up in foster care, and carried into being adopted. I felt as if I could understand what this fictional little girl was going through. I wanted to save her almost. She believes she is going to go to an orphanage, she feels like a burden. 

For me, the primary issue in this book is that Lucky changes in this book, like in a significant way. It isn't a good change either. She goes from an adorable heroine, who is super likable, intelligent, and witty to a mean, bratty child at the very end. It is a shocking turn of events. 

Secondly while childhood logic can be very lacking, I don't think any child who is so survival-minded and an educated nature lover would choose to run away in the middle of a dangerous sandstorm. The author her took her from a smart and witty girl to an emotionally driven child. It was hardly believable, nor entertaining. Another failure in logic is why a person is thinking about opening a cafe in a town where people live on government supplied food, no one has jobs, or they are disabled. What are they going to purchase this lovely french food with? All their pretend monopoly money. It just doesn't make sense. 

I enjoyed the setting and location though. I thought the little small town of Hard Pan, was a clever little spot to have a story in. I thought the people were insane but not overly so. I think that it was described in a way that made you believe that this could be a real town. I liked the quirkiness of the location. 

I am glad it had a good ending though. I think that is the only reason this book isn't receiving a one-star review from me. 

Overall, I just can't understand why this book won the Newbery. Perhaps it was the wild publicity it had. Or the blowback for the use of the word "scrotum." I feel like this isn't a book I will be recommending to any child or adult. It is a hard pass for me.