Newbery #1

The Higher Power of Lucky

Patron, S. (2009). The Higher Power of Lucky. New York: Aladdin.

This is the story of Lucky, and it is very unlikely. Lucky's biological calls up his ex-wife in Paris to ask her to raise his daughter. Who would come all the way from Paris to raise their ex-spouse's kid? I'm pretty sure that would be no one. The story gets a little more unreal as it goes on. This is as much of a summary or explanation as I care to give about this book.

Apparently, there has been a lot of controversy over this book and it has been pulled from many library shelves because it uses the word scrotum in the second paragraph. Being the mother of a boy, I'm much more in favor of using the anatomically correct word than some of the other slang terms which are used to describe this part of the male anatomy. That being said, controversy over the word itself, in my opinion, is dumb.

Moving past the "S" word, I will say that I would not want my son to ever read this book, nor would I use it in a classroom for the age recommended (9-12). The beginning of the book starts out talking about Sammy, an alcoholic, who "told of the day when he had drunk half a gallon of rum listening to Johnny Cash all morning in his parked '62 Cadillac, then fallen out of the car when he saw a rattlesnake on the passenter seat biting his dog, Roy, on the scrotum." Sammy goes on to tell about how he passed out afterwards and the next thing he knew his wife was standing over him with her suitcases packed and the dog water and food bowls packed as well. I read this part of the book to my fiance`, who really doesn't get worked up about things like I do (especially not books), and he raised his eyebrows and said "That's a kid's book? I wouldn't want my kid reading that." The talks about 12 step programs, which most kids don't know what they are because they are too young to worry about such issues. It also talks about finding a higher power. The way the book explains this is not very kid-friendly either.

I read on another post (Kimberly Thompson's maybe???) that she really did not like Newbery books in general. I'm with her on this, as I find that the material in most Newbery's is such that an adult would like for a kid to read, but kids really don't have that same interest. I honestly don't see what an adult found in this book either.