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The Higher Power of Lucky

(2006, Fiction - Contemporary Fiction, Written by Susan Patron, Illustrated by Matt Phelan)
  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 7, age appropriate for kids over 9; suggested age 9.
  • Is it any good?

    4.0
  • Common Sense says

    Newbery winner is delicate, humorous, poignant.

Why We Rated This on for Ages 9 and Up

The good stuff

  • Messages:

    Not an issue.
 

What to watch out for

  • Violence:

    A mother is electrocuted by a downed power line, not described.
  • Sex:

    Not an issue.
  • Language:

    Several discussions of the word "scrotum."
  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    References to smoking, drinking and drunkenness, marijuana.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About The Higher Power of Lucky

Parents need to know that the main character's mother was electrocuted by a downed power line, and her father has abandoned her. There are several discussions of a dog's scrotum (which led to the banning of this book by some school libraries) and references to smoking, drinking, and marijuana.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about Lucky's "meanness gland." Why are even good people sometimes mean? Why does Lucky sometimes like being mean? Do you ever feel this way? What do you do about it?

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Our Members Say

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See all 10 member reviews

Most Recent Reviews

  1. Adult Reviewer
    I rate this title on for age 10 and give it 4.0
    • My highlights are:
    • Good role models

    I loved this book. I am a 25 year old going to school to be a elementary school teacher and had to read it for class. I think this book was very good. For the use of the the one word that everyone knocks this book about I feel that using the correct term (in which Patron did) is better then using slang for it. For the use of drugs, alcohol, and smoking, it is all done by adults and not a single child does anything bad in the book with these.

  2. Kid Reviewer Age 11
    Lives in California
    I rate this title on for age 11 and give it 5.0

    A wonderful Book!

    I thought thi book, The Higher Power of Lucky, is a wonderful book! It's Funny, has good characters, and it has a goo theme! It teaches kids a good moral to remeber, and its hilarious! And theres nothing really bad for the use of the inaporpreate word, they just use it to say where a dog was bit.

  3. Adult Reviewer
    Lives in California
    I rate this title on for age 9 and give it 5.0

    A beautiful story for higher thinkers

    My son and I read this together for a book reprot in forth grade. Despite the lack of action, we were both drawn into the plight of a little girl whose life feels so precarious that she turns to the twelve steps to regain a sense of power over her fate. The themes of loss, insecurity, community and identity are simply rendered in a way that my young son had no problem identifying the importance of a higher power for us all. I thought this book was lovely and profound and have reccomended it to adult readers as well as children. Ignore the fuss over the anatomic language in the first chapter and if your really concerend, read the book first before you give it to your child (a practice I reccommend with any book regardless of the awards it receives.) Good luck and good reading!

  4. Adult Reviewer
    Lives in California
    I rate this title iffy for age 8 and give it 1.0

    its iffy

    in my opinion, i don't really like it!

  5. Adult Reviewer
    Lives in Nebraska
    I rate this title on for age 8 and give it 5.0

    Unique at its finest

    Great escape to another social culture yet simular dilemmas of today's children.

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