 First edition cover | |
| Author | Susan Patron |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Matt Phelan |
| Cover artist | Matt Phelan |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
Publication date | 7 November 2006 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 134 pp |
| ISBN | 1-4169-0194-9 |
| OCLC | 61253844 |
| LC Class | PZ7.P27565 Hig 2006 |
The Higher Power of Lucky is a children's novel written by Susan Patron and illustrated by Matt Phelan. Released in 2006 by Simon & Schuster, it was awarded the 2007 Newbery Medal. [1]
Lucky bean is a ten-year-old girl who lives in Hard Pan, a small town (population 43) [2] in the California desert. She has two friends: Lincoln, an avid knot tyer and expected by his mother to be the President when he grows up; and Miles, a five-year-old whose favorite book is Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman. After Lucky's mother died two years earlier, her father called upon his first ex-wife, Brigitte, to come to the United States from France to take care of Lucky.
Lucky fears that Brigitte is tired of being her guardian and of their life in Hard Pan. When Lucky discovers Brigette's suitcase and passport lying out, she becomes convinced that Brigitte will abandon her and return to France. This anxiety prompts Lucky to seek help from her Higher Power, a notion she acquires from eavesdropping at her town's 12-step meetings. After discovering three "signs" to leave, she runs away with her dog, HMS Beagle, [lower-alpha 1] during a sandstorm. Outside of town, however, she finds Miles, lost and injured in the storm, and takes him with her. They shelter in the dugouts near an abandoned mine and wait out the storm. They are soon joined by Lincoln, who tells them that the rest of the town is looking for them and will be there shortly. Before she leaves the dugouts, she casts her mother's ashes out in the wind in a makeshift memorial service with the townsfolk. Brigitte takes Lucky home and explains the papers Lucky had found in Brigitte's suitcase were actually to legally adopt Lucky, and she reveals her plans to open a restaurant in Hard Pan.
Controversy has arisen over the book due to the use of the word scrotum on its first page. A number of school libraries decided to ban or otherwise censor the book, according to a New York Times article. [3] While some accuse the author of attempting "Howard Stern-type shock treatment", author Susan Patron described the passage in question as being based on her personal knowledge of a rattlesnake biting a dog's scrotum, as well as an explanation of anatomy for readers 9 to 12 years old. She appeared on NPR's Talk of the Nation to defend her choice of words. [4]
The American Library Association responded to the New York Times article with a statement regarding the value of the book. [5] Cynthia Lord, Jennifer Holm, and Kirby Larson are authors of the three Newbery Honor books who also supported the "scrotum" usage. [6] The story gained further exposure on the blogosphere. [7] [8] Kristen McLean, executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children, provided the industry's response. [9]
Simon & Schuster posted a video on their in which Patron discusses the book and her influences in an interview by fellow Newbery Medalist Cynthia Kadohata. In the video, Rick Richter, President of the Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, states, "Simon & Schuster ultimately hopes that readers will recognize this wonderful book as a whole, and the charm and innocence of its main character Lucky, and will see beyond one word and the controversy surrounding the book. Susan Patron has written a masterful novel celebrating small town values and we can only hope that her deserved Newbery winner is recognized for the treasure that it truly is." [2]
The sequel to The Higher Power of Lucky was published on March 10, 2009 by Simon & Schuster. Lucky Breaks includes Lucky's eleventh birthday, and the introduction of another friend in her world.
The third and final book in Lucky's Hard Pan Trilogy is Lucky For Good. It was released in August 2011.
Susan Mary Cooper is an English author of children's books. She is best known for The Dark Is Rising, a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian legends and Welsh folk heroes. For that work, in 2012 she won the lifetime Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association, recognizing her contribution to writing for teens. In the 1970s two of the five novels were named the year's best English-language book with an "authentic Welsh background" by the Welsh Books Council.
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Cynthia Voigt is an American writer of books for young adults dealing with various topics such as adventure, mystery, racism and child abuse. Her first book in the Tillerman family series, Homecoming, was nominated for several international prizes and adapted as a 1996 film. Her novel Dicey's Song won the 1983 Newbery Medal.
Cynthia Rylant is an American author and librarian. She has written more than 100 children's books, including works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Several of her books have won awards, including her novel Missing May, which won the 1993 Newbery Medal, and A Fine White Dust, which was a 1987 Newbery Honor book. Two of her books are Caldecott Honor Books.
The Dark Is Rising Sequence is a series of five contemporary fantasy novels for older children and young adults that were written by the British author Susan Cooper and published from 1965 to 1977. The first book in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone, was originally conceived as a stand-alone novel, and the sequence gets its name from the second novel in the series, The Dark Is Rising. The Dark Is Rising Sequence is used as an over-arching title in several omnibus, boxed-set, and coordinated editions; but the title of The Dark is Rising is also used for the whole series.
Jennifer L. Holm is an American children's writer, and recipient of three Newbery Honors and the Eisner Award.
Cynthia Kadohata is a Japanese American children's writer best known for her young adult novel Kira-Kira which won the Newbery Medal in 2005. She won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2013 for The Thing About Luck.
Shiloh is a Newbery Medal-winning children's novel by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor published in 1991. The 65th book by Naylor, it is the first in a quartet about a young boy and the title character, an abused dog. Naylor decided to write Shiloh after an emotionally taxing experience in West Virginia where she encountered an abused dog.
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Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth was an American writer of fiction and poetry for children and adults. She won the 1931 Newbery Medal from the American Library Association award recognizing The Cat Who Went to Heaven as the previous year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." In 1968 she was a highly commended runner-up for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's writers.
Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Atheneum Books for Young Readers as an imprint for children's books in the 2000s.
Susan Patron is an American author of children's books. In 2007, she won the Newbery Award for The Higher Power of Lucky. Her first children's book, Burgoo Stew, was published in 1990. It was followed by three more picture books and the book Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe, which won the 1993 Parent's Choice Award. Patron published a sequel to The Higher Power of Lucky called Lucky Breaks, and then followed it up with the third and final book in Lucky's Hard Pan Trilogy, Lucky For Good.
Cynthia Lord is an American children's author. Her debut novel Rules was published by Scholastic, Inc. in 2006, and was a 2007 Newbery Honor book and winner of the Schneider Family Book Award.
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Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth is a children's novel by E. L. Konigsburg. It was published by Atheneum Books in 1967 and next year in the UK by Macmillan under the title Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth and Me.
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