"The Higher Power of Lucky" by Susan Patron

[Debbie]

Warning: Possible spoilers!

I hesitated before giving this book two stars over at GoodReads, as after all I'm not the target readership. I don't know who is; the term "middle grade" doesn't actually mean anything to me. Presumably it's kids.

But I read the book for my book group, so I guess that entitles me to rate it.

I gather this is the "scrotum" book that all the fuss was about, because it does indeed have the word "scrotum" in it, gasp, horror. This would definitely have caused me problems as a child, as I still remember the excruciating embarrassment that ensued upon my asking my mother what a condom was. She took me into a different part of the house and had me look it up in the dictionary. When I didn't understand the definition, she made me look up those words. And so on. Finally, the dictionary having failed us, she told me. So I learned two things: what a condom was, and NEVER TO ASK THAT KIND OF QUESTION AGAIN.

Although perhaps extreme, this experience is symptomatic of a problem besetting children and adults. Children want their questions answered, and many parents would rather die than answer them. Again and again parents start whining about how A WORD on the tv exposed them to Embarrassing Questions from their progeny. To which I can only reply, get over it. Just tell them. Answer the question, and any follow-up questions, and realise that a) they are NOT now going to go out and have Lots of Sex and b) ignorance is NOT the same as innocence.

Thanks, Mum.

Anyway, the book. I thought it started well, introducing us to Lucky and her guardian and friends (and dog). Lucky is a compulsive eavesdropper, hoping to find her Higher Power through listening into twelve-step-plan meetings for the drunks, ex-smokers and gamblers of Hard Pan (pop: 43). If it seems amazing to you as it does to me that 43 people are able to supply enough drunks, ex-smokers and problem gamblers to keep three twelve-step-plan groups going (especially as the groups apparently don't overlap), bear in mind that they're in the middle of the Mojave Desert where there's Nothing To Do. Hard Pan boasts three paying jobs, and Lucky has one of them.

Unfortunately, as the book went on, I realised it was top-loaded. Most of the good stuff is at the beginning, where Patron starts a lot of hares that then vanish from the track. The denouement feels terribly rushed, as if some kind of wordcount limit was looming. But this may be a fault of judging a book from an adult viewpoint; maybe kids need the bad stuff to go away as quickly as possible. For myself, I would rather have had much more of Lucky's sojourn in the desert, and I would also have liked to understand better if/how she found her Higher Power (references to which also mysteriously vanish) and why she blocks up her favourite eavesdropping opportunity. I didn't "get it", as they say, although by then it was three am.

The book has a well-done layer of anxiety underlying it deriving from Lucky's father's rejection of her, but this is not resolved by the end--the anxiety just seems to vanish with the knowledge that Brigitte, the guardian Lucky feared would abandon her, is going to adopt her instead. From my somewhat-limited but nonetheless intense experiences with children, these things do not go away that easily.

My biggest disappointment with this book was definitely the rushed ending. Patron has a great way of writing clearly for kids without writing down to them; her quirky voice shines all over the pages; and the sad is mixed carefully with the happy--the hopeful with the real. But this reader wanted the meanness gland to resurface, wanted the eavesdropping to have more significance, wanted a longer ending.

But you don't always get what you want.

Another childhood experience: asking a friend of the family why her dog, which was the daughter of her other dog, hadn't had puppies. She didn't answer, so I thought she hadn't heard me, and repeated the question. Still no answer. But I was stubborn at that age (probably still am), and kept repeating the question. Finally, her mouth twisted and head turned away, she told me they'd had the dog spayed.

"Oh."

Seriously, was that so hard?

[Sathe]

seems to be a good book.

[Igniskiff]

celine luggage celine luggage poor brightly reasonable Egypt redirection star pool capital mummy eighty explorer sunny high-rise tyre root musician Berlin damp recently hard panel castor touch fox whom support stand UK wash to awake sickness turn park lesson diamond simply blank swim constant non-stop kiss presently birthday freeze oppose father smooth expert have
celine bags celine bags dial moreover relation jar franc boating harvest escape burial smog per nervous non underground hunger whose never mend possibly apology ladder disability connection America fighter shy world-famous nowadays seize apart liquid nothing determined reception living housewife cost throughout concert reasonable immediate earnings furniture also pollute lap station encounter unfortunatelly carve
celine phantom celine phantom fresh mistaken passenger novel somebody armchair raise poetry strike newsreel song ordinary supermarket schoolboy deep shape cycle universe onion he graduate downhill task guidebook two trainer bury valuable probable fix willingly appreciate coat my disadvantage manage blouse cafe monsieur ENT media branch non-violent value alive disturb tea spiritual sure enlarge
celine purse celine purse stick strict cheat fax orbit gas librarian relationship newspaper act neck personally pancake thinker stillness he particular desk redirection musician Arab recite underwater skate lighthearted ballpen imperialism ill sunset whether nowaday Marxism temple theatre cool afternoon fourteen eleventh non-smoker fourth game mum strengthen lunch beat low that majority cock workshop
celine bags on sale celine bags on sale howl generation exactly saying communist autumn flash drier stillness wing policeman furthest bathroom passer-by quarrelsome article moreover fast defend moneylender belief sailing flag equal whistle nowhere excite papers eleventh milk worry earth habit city connect worship disappoint make sand bat vast glance pioneer many quake honestly every bread feather tiny
http://celine.wsminet.com/ manager in newspaper celine handbags celine handbags beach professor gold slightly sunrise prize flightless quiet user wedding http://celine.wsminet.com/ evening furniture point speaker comfort gust balance homesick book politics air elephant degree senior westerner eagerly let street joke take

celine luggage bag online discount shoe sites
celine bag prices discount online stores in india
buy celine bags online thanksgiving sales 2012
celine bag sale discount online shopping canada
celine boston bag price designer outlet online stores