Lucky Breaks (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Lucky Breaks Elizabeth Bush Patron, Susan Lucky Breaks; illus. by Matt Phelan. Seo/Atheneum, 2009181p ISBN 978-1-4169-3998-6$16.99 R Gr. 4-6 Lucky Trimble is a little older and wiser than she was in her debut in The Higher Power of Lucky (BCCB 1/07), and now as she totters on the brink of eleven, she's feeling particularly intrepid and particularly in need of a female friend. Paloma breezes into Hard Pan, California with her geologist uncle like a miracle ordained just for Lucky, a sympatico buddy with whom she can plot, plan, and laugh until it hurts. But time hasn't delivered Lucky full enlightenment. She may crave girly companionship, but she doesn't want to completely lose her first true friend, Lincoln, and so she sabotages his chances to win an international knot-tying competition, which could take him overseas. Then, in a fit of friendship-induced bravado, she leads Paloma on a forbidden outing to an abandoned well (reported to hold a broken keepsake of another Paloma of tragic local legend), and Lucky ends up stranded at the bottom of said well, relying on city-bred Paloma to make [End Page 376] her way back to Hard Pan and bring rescuers. It is faithful Lincoln, though, who comes through with his peculiar skills, bringing Lucky back up safely and sending her into a temperamental state of guilt and chagrin. In this fully satisfying sequel, Lucky continues to be the sturdy character a reader can believe in—prone to what one might quaintly call "scrapes," but bright and big-hearted in the tradition of Anne Shirley and Jo March. Return visitors to Hard Pan will be glad to know the eccentric populace remains very firmly in place, and the novel's end feels less like a conclusion than a pause between adventures. Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois