The protagonist is Lucky, a ten-year-old girl living in an incredibly small town in California whose mother has passed away. Her father, who has been (and continues to be) absent in her life, gets the call when Lucky’s mother dies and, surprising everyone, brings his first wife from France to be Lucky’s guardian.
Lucky lives in fear of her guardian packing up and returning to her home country, leaving Lucky all alone and at the mercy of the system. She tries to prepare herself for any eventuality by carrying around a backpack full of necessary-to-her items that she calls her survival kit. She is also working on figuring out what her Higher Power might be, an idea which she got from listening in on the twelve-step meetings in town.
While I personally wasn’t enthralled by the book, I can see how it does a good job of exploring the confusion Lucky experiences due to her mother’s death and her father’s virtual abandonment in a way that would reach most middle grade readers.
Note: This is Book #113 of my 2011 Reads (master list here).
I'm a mom with Asperger's raising an amazing son with autism, which means I'm basically the case manager/advocate/cheerleader/chauffeur. The rest of the time, you can usually find me with my nose in a book!
