Lucky for Good is good indeed. So good.
October 3, 2011 at 7:15 pm 5 comments
It’s hard to believe that a series where the first book won the Newbery could get better and better, but in my opinion, that’s what’s happened with Susan Patron’s Hard Pan Trilogy. With each of the books, you love Lucky and Hard Pan and the quirky folk who call the town their home, even more than you did before.
I love that Lucky is just as curious about the world as she was when we first met her in The Higher Power of Lucky. She’s still searching. She wants to know things. Will Brigitte’s Cafe stay open in spite of some tricky health codes? Will she ever make peace with her father? What will happen now that Miles’ mom is back in Hard Pan, and what will happen if Lincoln leaves her?
I love that Lucky is reading Charles and Emma (sure proof that she is one cool kid) and that her faithful hound, H.M.S. Beagle, is as perfect a sidekick as he ever was. I love that Susan Patron has created a story that invites readers to think about how a family doesn’t have to be what you expect in order to be right and loving and more than good enough. She also presents different pictures of what faith and belief can be and I think that her exploration of Lucky trying to navigate her way through spiritual uncertainty makes Lucky one of the more interesting and compelling young characters I’ve come across in a long while.
I love these books. They are good – so good – and complicated and meandering and happy and sad and hopeful and heart-warming. All things that you expect to find in life, you’ll find here. So go read them.
Lucky for Good is published by Atheneum.
Entry filed under: Middle Grade. Tags: .
1. L | October 3, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Great post. I agree with how you speak of Patron’ story. It is wonderful (and unusual) that after the first the following could be even better. I am so very much looking forward to Lucky for Good– though I am going to be sad this is the final installment.
~L
2. shelfelf | October 10, 2011 at 7:16 pm
I am sad too. Maybe she’ll write one when Lucky is sixteen? Wouldn’t you love to catch up with Lucky as a teenager?
3. Laurie Beth Schneider | October 30, 2011 at 3:38 pm
I’m sorry to leave Lucky and Hardpan behind, too. I love that you’ve used “meandering” in a positive way. I think sometimes editors/reviewers get so hung up on tidy storytelling that we forget the pleasure of wandering, getting lost in a place — a feeling I loved (and still love) as a kid.
4. Trina | November 12, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Hi Elf! Would this be an good book for my 11 year old niece? I have to begin Xmas shopping and of course consult your fantastic blog for my bookish needs.
5. shelfelf | November 13, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Yes! But I would start with the first in the series. It’s called The Higher Power of Lucky. You could skip to #3, but they are all so good she might as well start from the first. She’s lucky to have a book-loving auntie!