The Higher Power Of Lucky

Patron, S. (2006). The higher power of lucky. (Phelan, M. illus.). Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 9781416901945

Primary genre: realistic fiction

Other elements: family, friendship

Intended reader age: 9 and up

Synopsis:

Ten-year-old Lucky Trimble lives in Hard Pan, a small town of 43 located in the desert of California, and spends much of her time eavesdropping on the stories told by the 12-step anonymous members. The sudden loss of her mother and abandonment of her father has left Lucky with the desire to find that Higher Power the members always talk of. On top of this Lucky now fears that her Guardian, Brigitte, is going to go back to France and which will leave Lucky a ward of the state. Lucky decides the only option she has is to run away. A sudden dust storm and an unwelcome visitor make running away a lot more difficult than Lucky was expecting.

Review:

I really enjoyed Lucky as a character; I found her to be intelligent, resourceful, and extremely child-like at times. Not child-like in the demeaning sense (which we usually use it for now) but in sense that Lucky still saw the possibility for everything to turn out happy. The place that this child-like quality really stood out was when Lucky made the decision to run away. She decided to run away because she “liked the idea that by running away she could make people do things they wouldn’t do otherwise” (p. 85). There was never a point that Lucky thought of the bad aspects of running away, she planned out exactly where she would go, how long she would be gone, and the expectations she had for when she came back home. She didn’t want Brigitte to leave because if Brigitte left, Lucky would be moved from the only home that she has ever known. Her home, and her attachment to it, is another aspect that speaks of her child-like quality. There are not many tweens, especially in our society, who would be content to remain in a town with a population of 43 surrounded by nothing but the desert. But the town is remade through Lucky’s eyes, she doesn’t see the desert as a hot, dusty landscape but gives readers views of the beauty and the life present.  

Lucky’s biggest wish through the novel is to find her Higher Power, a term she learned while listening to 12-step program meetings. This is a term that reflects these characters descent into the worst possible moment in their lives and how that turned them around. Lucky finally comes to understand what this term represents when she runs away, “she suddenly understood that she’d been doing everything backward. She’d thought you looked for your Higher Power and when you found it you got special knowledge-special insight- about how the world works, and why people die, and how to keep bad things from happening” (p. 79). This is the moment that Lucky moves away from her child-like thoughts that everything will work out perfectly and everything will make sense. She accepts that there will not always be answers to why bad things happen.
It often felt through the book that Patron intended for this to be read by the younger spectrum of tween readers. The main character is only 10 and is primarily focused on family issues more so than friendships. Lucky’s tendency to carry around a survival pack reminded me of Kate from The Mysterious Benedict Society, although in Kate’s case it was a survival bucket. Patron also continued the story of Lucky, turning this story into the first of three.