Book Descriptions
for Lucky Breaks by Susan Patron and Matt Phelan
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Lucky Trimble is about to turn eleven. “Not the thud of ten, but flouncy e-lev-en, with its sophisticated three syllables…eleven is much more intrepid than only ten.” When Lucky meets Paloma, a girl her age who finds everything about Lucky’s town of Hard Pan (pop. 43) fascinating, or funny in a good way, Lucky is sure she’s found a new friend—maybe even a new best friend—despite Paloma’s living hundreds of miles away. Paloma’s name is even the same as a woman of legend who was said to have wandered into Hard Pan a hundred years before, and Lucky knows things like that matter. Revisiting the vivid characters and community of Hard Pan first introduced in The Higher Power of Lucky (Atheneum, 2006), Susan Patron again looks at the life of a girl who is openhearted but not always kind, adventurous but not always careful, keenly observant but not always thoughtful. Lucky’s fallibility makes her so very real as she stumbles on the path to turning eleven and finds that a new friend can help her appreciate an old one. Susan Patron’s superbly written novel is full of surprising, acute descriptions of what Lucky thinks and feels—just one of the many treasures it holds. (Ages 8–10)
CCBC Choices 2010. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2010. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
"Eleven is much more intrepid than only ten."
On the eve of her eleventh birthday, Lucky wants to let loose and become intrepid; she's ready for life to change. But Hard Pan (population 43) drones on like it always has: Lincoln all tied up in knotty matters, Miles newly diagnosed as a genius but as needy as ever, Brigitte running her Café and trying to figure out what it means to be American.
Enter Paloma, tagging along on a visit to Hard Pan with a pack of hungry geologists. She's smart and pretty and fun -- definitely best-friend material. But will Lucky be able to cope with tomato worms, Short Sammy's mysterious box, the potential for disaster when Paloma's parents visit Hard Pan, and Lincoln's fame among knot tyers of the world?
Lucky's intrepidness is put to the test in this satisfying sequel to the Newbery Award-winning The Higher Power of Lucky.
On the eve of her eleventh birthday, Lucky wants to let loose and become intrepid; she's ready for life to change. But Hard Pan (population 43) drones on like it always has: Lincoln all tied up in knotty matters, Miles newly diagnosed as a genius but as needy as ever, Brigitte running her Café and trying to figure out what it means to be American.
Enter Paloma, tagging along on a visit to Hard Pan with a pack of hungry geologists. She's smart and pretty and fun -- definitely best-friend material. But will Lucky be able to cope with tomato worms, Short Sammy's mysterious box, the potential for disaster when Paloma's parents visit Hard Pan, and Lincoln's fame among knot tyers of the world?
Lucky's intrepidness is put to the test in this satisfying sequel to the Newbery Award-winning The Higher Power of Lucky.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.