The Higher Power of Lucky (Hard Pan Trilogy)

I wanted so much to like this one, but felt it just didn't deliver. Some solid themes and characters were in place but -- dare I say it in the face of a Newbery award -- the writing was simply not that interesting. Overall the work was OK, but I felt it fell well short of the bar set by other winners.

My kids read this book and didn't want to finish it. I read it to see what the problem was. I can't blame them. The lead character Lucky is not very likeable or nice. The story is a jumble and the life lessons are too little, too late and super contrived.

Granted, this series is not for everyone, and the target audience is hard to pin-down. Children's book??? Mmmm, personally I think the series is more suited for adults 20+yrs with a light-hearted youthful spirit. If you're a regular person that's not put-off by a little boisterous language etc, Then this is a wonderful series of books that you might want to give a try.

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Review of all three books in the 'Hard Pan Trilogy'
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Lucky lives in Hard Pan, California, in a canned-ham bedroom attached to a trailer. She lives with Brigitte, who is not her mother but her biological father's French ex-wife. Brigitte came to Hard Pan all the way from France because Lucky's father asked her to, after Lucky's mother went out into the desert after a storm and was struck dead by lightening.

So for now Lucky lives with Brigitte, who calls her 'petite puce' which sounds lovely in French, but really means 'little flea' in English. Lucky loves Brigitte, but does not dare hope that she will want to be Lucky's mother for good.

So in between trying not to hope that Brigitte will become Lucky's mother, and avoiding looking at her real dead mother's ashes in an urn, Lucky decides to find her higher power to get her through. It's what everyone talks about at the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting held at Hard Pan's Found Object Wind Chime Museum. Higher power. Short Sammy talks about it a lot, when he recounts the story of the day his beloved dog got bit by a snake and his wife left him, and how he ended up finding his higher power that got him through the worst time in his life.

'The Higher Power of Lucky' was Susan Patron's 2007 Newberry award-winning middle-grade book. In 2010 Patron went on to continue Lucky's story with 'Lucky Breaks', and ending with 'Lucky For Good' in 2011, when Lucky is twelve-years-old, rounding the books out to the 'Hard Pan Trilogy'.

Susan Patron's series is a complete delight; for both its charismatically flawed heroine and her delightfully quirky hometown of Hard Pan. The first book, 'Higher Power of Lucky' begins when Lucky is ten-years-old, and her mother has just recently passed away, 'replacing' her with her father's ex-wife, the French Brigitte. We are introduced to this very unconventional family unit, which encompasses the wider town of Hard Pan, populated with quirky characters. There's Lucky's best friend, Lincoln, a knot-tying protégé with hopes of becoming the future President of the United States. Litle boy Miles who has a perfectly-timed cookie-retrieval system for visiting all the Hard Pan residents. There's also Short Sammy who lives in a water tank, and mourns the loss of his best dog friend not to mention an archeological team who breeze through Hard Pan to stop at Brigitte's renowned French-bistro café.

The books are all about Lucky; a glorious ragamuffin of a girl who is navigating the changing landscape of her life after losing her mother. The books begin when she is ten and follow her to age twelve, but Patron's brilliance lies in not restricting Lucky to her young age - she has moments, particularly in 'Lucky Breaks' and especially 'Lucky For Good' when she's starting to notice the opposite sex, beginning to appreciate (and resent) the flaws in her character and truly come to realize the impacting world beyond Hard Pan. 'Lucky For Good' is a particularly interesting book for Lucky's evolution, because she starts to think on the feelings of resentment and anger she has towards her absent father - who abandoned Lucky and her mother shortly after she was conceived. Patron doesn't inundate the books with all of these life-changing, big marker moments - and it's partly thanks to the third-person narration that as readers we can see Lucky's forming character, but don't get bogged down in the life-changing momentousness of it all. Patron is such a masterful storyteller, particularly in her middle-grade revelations, that she gives the readers just enough incite to have that spark of recognition regarding big changes within Lucky. And some of Patron's emotive descriptions and similes are just so pitch-perfect and brilliant;

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Lucky had the same jolting feeling as when you're in a big hurry to pee and you pull down your pants fast and back up to the toilet without looking - but some man or boy before you has forgotten to put the seat down. So your bottom, which is expecting the usual nicely shaped plastic toilet seat, instead lands shocked on the thin rim of the toilet bowl, which is quite a lot colder and lower. Your bottom gets a panic of bad surprise. That was the same thump-on-the-heart shock Lucky got finding out that Miles's mother was in jail.
-- 'The Higher Power of Lucky'
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These books are very much focused on family, but not the conventional, nuclear one of other middle-grade books. Patron, in her 'Lucky' series really embraces the notion that it takes a village to raise a child, and lacking blood-ties doesn't mean lacking in love. Lucky's interactions with her stepmother, Brigitte, are heartfelt and lovely.

I really enjoyed reading Susan Patron's Newberry-winning series, focused on Hard Pan native, little girl Lucky and the cast of quirky characters in her desert hometown.

I wrote the same review twice and Amazon didn't accept it. Hopefully, this one won't be considered spam (reviews < 20 words = "spam").
My main problem with this book is, it's depressing.
I think children's books should be happy. Although this book IS well-written AND has a happy ending, it was not a happy book. Mother dies, Father rejects her, she lives in desert etc. (NO SPOILER here!) ..
Okay! I know! It's a Newberry Award winner. It just won't end up on my recommended list. However, since at least 70 OTHER people disagree with me (based on their reviews) ... make up your own mind. READ THE BOOK!

"The Higher Power of Lucky" is a heartwarming and hilarious story for middle graders, and a title that is deserving of its prestigious Newbery Medal. Children and adults alike will enjoy the trials of young Lucky, and Susan Patron does a magnificent job of making a setting that should be bland (a quiet desert town) into something that is interesting and brimming with possibility. Though quite deep in theme (a child's quest to cope with abandonment), the novel has a humorous, lighthearted vibe that persists throughout. Patron has a great knack for language... just take a gander at a couple of my favorite passages:

"Never before had Lucky realized that Lincoln's knot-tying brain secretions gave him such a special way of seeing."

"The feel of the air, soft and nearly still, was something you usually wouldn't even notice. But now, after the dust storm, it felt like a kindness, a special thoughtful anonymous gift."

"After a while, the full moon roared up into the sky behind their hill. Lucky thought that the people on Earth were very, very lucky to have their exact moon."

Lucky is a ten year old girl who has lived a very difficult life. Two years ago she lost her mother in a tragic accident. Her father sent for his ex-wife, who lived in France, to come and be her guardian. Lucky loved Brigette, but since she was only a guardian and not her mother, Lucky worried she would one day change her mind and move back to France without her. Lucky was always prepared for the worst. She carried her survival kit with her wherever she went. To help earn extra money she worked cleaning up after different groups that came to meet at the local museum. These groups were twelve step programs for Aloholics, Smokers etc... After cleaning up Lucky liked to listen to the various members talk about how they hit rock bottom and found their higher power that helped them move on.

Lucky spent a great deal of her time trying to find her higher power. She thought that if everyone else had one, then she must too. While looking through her guardian's belongings one day she found paperwork and Brigette's passport packed in her bag. To Lucky this could only mean one thing, Brigette was ready to move back to France and leave her behind in an orphanage. To find out what happens to Lucky, you'll have to read for yourself.

I found the book kept my attention throughout and I could feel my heart go out to this young girl living in a trailer with only food given to them by the government surplus to get them through. No child should have to live without someone special to take care of them whether it be a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin etc... This book is geared toward an older reader, maybe fourth grade on up. It has a few small illustrations along the way to keep the story light. I encourage you to share it with your child, especially if you feel they don't understand how bad some other children really do have it.

By Kerri J. Busteed
Author of Will's First Hunt [...]

very informative for YA

My daughter (7) just finished it, and she enjoyed it. This is the sort of book a fast reader can finish in one sitting (if they're not interrupted with chores, meals, and little siblings demanding attention!).

As a member of numerous 12-step programs, I was looking forward to reading this book - especially with the seal that was on the front cover. I was disappointed after I finished it. I feel as if the book did not tie up loose ends very neatly. What happened to Lincoln and the whole "being presidential" thing? I know Lucky found her higher power in the wind with her mother's ashes at the end, but it wasn't well finished. What happened with the insect collection? And her wanting to be a scientist? The only loose end it seemed to tie up was the "scrotum" question at the end. Not the most relevant issue in the book. I felt as if it started off strong, but I was never left with that "quotable" paragraph, like I find at the end of most of the enjoyable books I read.