Susan Patron

Nice read. Reminded me how little exposure I have to the west. Some humor and sweetness a d so e realistic behavior on the part of the main character, Lucky, who really is

This is one of those books I picked up because of it's Newbery medal, but was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. The characters were true sounding, full of unusual quirks. The story, set in a tiny desert town was well crafted and the townsfolk and town itself was unusual and interesting. I genuinely liked Lucky, and even when she was not being her best, still looked forward to a happy ending.

In case you don't know, this is the book that won the Newbery medal and caused all the fuss over the word scrotum. Scrota (I had to look up the right plural) aside, it's a neat little book about a young girl looking for answers to life's tough questions, which is all the more interesting in her case because she has a nontraditional family and an obsession with 12 Step groups. (And Lucky is a really cute name for a kid, though it's kind of always been a dog's name in my book.)