Higher Power of Lucky

The Higher Power of Lucky

By Susan Patron

Illustrations by Matt Phelan

5 Stars

Grades 4-6

This is the story of a little girl who has lost her mother, and is unsure if her temporary guardian will stay and take care of her. 

The characters of The Higher Power of Lucky are what really drew me in to the story.  They are a bunch of quirky oddballs who I wish that I knew in real life.  I love Lucky.  As I read Patron’s words, I could visualize a little girl carrying around her survival backpack and eavesdropping on the various addiction group meetings.  Miles reminded me of a little stray puppy who needed someone to take him home, clean him up, and let him sit on their lap.  Short Sammy reminded me of an eccentric uncle.  The way the strange characters helped each other through the story was one of my favorite elements of this story. 

Another part of the story that really stuck with me was the theme of looking for a mother.  Both Lucky and Miles are looking for someone to replace their mothers.  It seems at times that Miles has chosen Lucky to be his replacement mother, and that although Lucky does look out for him, she doesn’t want to be responsible for Miles.  Miles even carries around the book, Are You My Mother?, and repeatedly asks Lucky to read it to him. 

The other theme of the book that I found interesting was Lucky’s search for her Higher Power.  I’m not even entirely sure what this means, except that it involves her hitting rock bottom, reaching some sort of clarity, and that this is tied together with her convincing Brigitte to stay and care for her.  In some ways, it seems like this theme is tied up with the theme of searching for her mother.   She had to think that she had lost Brigitte, go off on her journey to the cave, rescue Miles once more, and then symbolically release her own mother by releasing her ashes into the desert in order for her to realize that Brigitte was going to become her new mother.

This book was definitely a quality read.  It has had me thinking about it since I read it, and I think that I need to (and want to) reread it in order to answer some of the questions that I still have about the book.

I can definitely see myself reading this book for a read-aloud book in my future classroom, but in all honestly, if I did, I would substitute the word “scrotum” for another body part of the dog.  I understand why Patron chose that word, but I think that the rest of the story shows the progression of Lucky and Brigitte’s relationship well enough, that I wouldn’t feel too badly omitting that portion of the text.   

Click here to read a New York Times article on the "scrotum" controversy. 

More artwork by Matt Phelan