Synopsis: Lucky Trimble is a curious, independent child who is in the guardianship of her father’s first wife, Brigitte. Brigitte is French and came to California to be her temporary guardian, and Lucky is afraid she will move back to France and Lucky will have to go to an orphanage. The story follows Lucky as she strives to find her Higher Power (Lucky eavesdrops on AA meetings and other twelve-step programs at her job of cleaning up at Hard Pan’s Found Object Wind Chime Musem), even though she’s not really sure what that is, exactly. Miles, her five-year-old friend, and Lincoln, a classmate and future president (if you ask his mother), come along for some of her adventures.
Rating: Very good
Opinion: This book won the Newbery, so I expected a great book. I was a tad bit disappointed for this reason: I put the book down about half-way through to read something else, and it took me a long time to pick it back up again. I wasn’t even sure I was going to finish it. To me, that says that the book wasn’t gripping. However, it was a very well-written book, even if it wasn’t a thrilling page-turner. Lucky is so accurately drawn as a child. She hears a few things, sees Brigitte’s passport in a suitcase, and jumps to the conclusion that Brigitte is leaving her to move back to France. With her world tumbling down around her, Lucky comes up with a grand plan to keep Brigitte with her: she plans to run away, which will make Brigitte realize that she wants to keep Lucky. That thinking – that logic – is spot-on for a child. I remember thinking similar things as a child, and I wasn’t even an orphan, like Lucky is.
Now, to weigh in on the Great Scrotum Debate, oh joy! Having read the book from cover to cover, I really think that there is more controversy than there needs to be. See, on the first page of the book is the word scrotum. Not a word you hear in everyday conversation, I’ll grant you, but Lucky overhears this word and wonders what it means. It’s not even talking about a man’s scrotum – it’s a dog’s. It comes up again at the end of the book when Lucky asks Brigitte what it means, and she explains it in very straightforward terms. And that’s it. It’s not the central theme of the book, nor does it go into raunchy terms inappropriate for the book’s readership. This is essentially a book about a child who needs to be loved and to be taken care of, and it’s a shame that a single word overshadows what is good about this book.
My husband thinks that this book should be about the girl written from the dog’s perspective. But it’s not. It’s a book about the girl. The dog is involved in the plot, but does not play a major narrative role. Just to set things straight.
This one won a Newbery Honor. I wasn’t all that psyched to read it, but I had heard good things abut, so I gave it a shot. It was really very well written. It is told from the point of view of Squirrel, one of two who survived a litter of a stray dog. Squirrel and her brother Bone spend their early years fairly comfortable in a shed of a country house, but one day Mother leaves the shed and does not return. Bone and Squirrel fend for themselves for a while, but also eventually leave the property. They learn to hunt, and where the best garbage piles are, and are eventually separated. Squirrel spends her next 6 or so years living off garbage piles, her own hunting skills, and sometimes living with humans. This book made me want a dog. The writing really emanated a dog personality. I don’t know what else to say about it, but it was very good.
This one won the Newbery honor award this year, and quite deservedly so. Miri, the main character, is a young girl who lives in a mountain mining community in a kind of fairy tale time and place. One day, an announcement comes from the king that the prince’s bride will come from Miri’s town, and as such all the girls 14 to 17 are taken to an academy designed to make them more presentable (because we can’t have coarse, uneducated peasant girls meeting the prince, now can we?). Miri struggles with conflicting desires to meet and impress the prince and to potentially have an easier life, and to be with her friend, who truly cares about her. There’s more to the store than the romance, but that’s the basic idea. Miri is a strong female role model, and the rest of the characters kind of fade in comparison. It’s very good storytelling, and takes some twists and turns. Very well written, two thumbs up, five stars, yadda yadda. Just go read it (even if it is a kid’s book. Lots of great books are children’s books).
