The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Oh so funny! I did not know this book has so much controversy surrounding it until I looked at the comments on Amazon.com. Some librarians won't even let it in their libraries....does that make you curious and do you want to read it? Ha! Wait till you hear why...the story starts out with a little girl in a remote CA town Pop. 43 in the dessert. She is listening in on a AA meeting through a whole in the wall. Someone tells a story about how he found his higher power and it involved his dog almost dieing because he got bit by a rattle snake in his....okay here is the controversial word..."scrotum". When I read it I was laughing so hard. I didn't even think it was a bad word or something kids shouldn't hear. I was more concerned about the AA meeting with all the people addicted to things and how children would understand something like that.

Anyway, I thought the book was very thought provoking and I loved the way the little girl is trying to find her "higher power" and working through things in life, like being excepted by her guardian and dealing with the death of her mom. It was written with depth. There is a little boy that likes to get cookies from everyone and have them read him a story. He ends up being a key character. He is only five but deals with hard things in life too in his own child like way. The girl has a survival backpack with the best things for survival in there. She has little containers to catch bugs and she is always restocking her backpack to go with how she is feeling and what she thinks will come next in life. There are lots of special characters in the book that keep you on your toes, like the short cowboy guy that fries everything and the French guardian lady and the bus driver that is mean. Ilike her best friend the boy that ties knots all the time and I bet he will be President when he grows up.

I think it was a great Healing Book. Short read and worth it.