Claudia Mills, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
Eavesdropping on the meetings of "the anonymous people" (Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Smokers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous), ten-year-old Lucky yearns to find her own "higher power" that will help her deal with the death of her mother, abandonment by her father, and the fear that her French guardian, her father's first wife, Brigitte, will return to Paris. As Brigitte's departure from tiny, isolated Hard Pan, California, seems ever more imminent (picky question: with population 43, where do all the attendees of these "anonymous meetings" come from?), Lucky decides that her only option is to shoulder her survival-kit backpack and run away into a desert sandstorm. Although the studied small-town eccentricities of Hard Pan are too heavily underlined (the anonymous meetings are held at the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center, near Dot's Baubles 'n' Beauty Salon; Lucky's best friend, Lincoln Clinton Carter Kennedy, is a member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, etc.), Lucky's mix of meanness and big-heartedness makes her a multi-dimensional character whose predicament is compelling. Many readers will identify with Lucky's inchoate feeling that "sometimes [she] wanted to change everything, all the bad things that had happened, and some times she wanted everything to stay the same forever." Don't we all. 2006, Richard Jackson/Atheneum, $16.95. Ages 9 to 11.

Kristen Zeiler (Children's Literature)
Lucky, a curious young scientist, would practically be an orphan if not for her father’s first wife, Bridgette, who came from France to take care of Lucky for a few months. A few years later, Bridgette is still Lucky’s legal guardian. If, for whatever reason, Bridgette decided to leave Lucky, the ten year-old would become a ward of the state. As the story opens, we find out that Lucky enjoys eavesdropping on Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Smokers Anonymous meetings, and many others. At each meeting, she notices a common thread in the discussions--the addicts in each group find meaning in their lives after they find their higher power. The stories that Lucky hears prompt her to question what her own higher power is. Maybe then she will find stability in her own life. We begin to get a clearer picture of this ten year-old as she goes about a typical day in her small town. We get a few hints at her guardian’s personality, and we see how deep an emotional scar her mother’s death and her father’s abandonment have left in her life. On the cusp of adolescence, Lucky must make peace with her past before she can embrace her future. The illustrations by Patron add an organic feel to the story and compliment the plot well. Patron also establishes a knot motif that runs throughout the plot, and he utilizes it to separate transitions in the story while keeping the story unified. 2006, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, $16.95. Ages 9 to 11.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2007)
Ten-year-old Lucky lives in a trailer in Hard Pan, California. There are few secrets among the town’s forty-three residents, but Lucky has one: she plans on running away. It’s not that she doesn’t like Hard Pan. It’s home to the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center and an array of twelve-step meetings that provide wonderful opportunities for eavesdropping. It’s also home to her best friend, Lincoln, who challenges her to see old things in new ways, and her five-year-old neighbor, Miles, who never goes anywhere without his battered copy of Are You My Mother? But Lucky is worried. Her guardian, Brigitte, shows signs of planning to return to her home in France. Lucky is sure she will end up in an orphanage. She would much rather take control of her own destiny, even if it means leaving Hard Pan behind. Susan Patron’s quietly charged story builds to a dramatic climax in the midst of a desert dust storm. When the air finally clears, so, too, does the haze of Lucky’s uncertainty, and she is finally able to see what has been there all along: Brigitte’s unwavering love. Patron’s astonishingly fresh and literary novel, firmly grounded in Lucky’s perspective, features a memorable cast of singular characters and a distinctive sense of place. CCBC Category: Fiction for Children. 2006, A Richard Jackson Book / Atheneum, 134 pages, $16.95. Ages 9-12.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 20))
The facts of Lucky's life in Hard Pan, Calif. (population 43), scarcely qualify her as "lucky." One parent is dead and the other disinterested. Her future with her unemployed French guardian Brigitte, who was tricked into caring for her, feels uncertain. When Lucky discovers that Brigitte is taking an online course in restaurant management from Paris, she anticipates being abandoned. To find her higher power and take control of her life, Lucky runs away in a dust storm, hoping to cause worry, sadness and a change of Brigitte's heart. Potential disaster leads to Lucky's discovery that Brigitte loves her, which helps her come to terms with her mother's death. The plot is not what elevates Lucky's memorable story. Hard Pan may be lightly populated, but every soul is uniquely unforgettable, from 5-year-old Miles, shameless cookie hustler, to Lincoln, serious knot-tying addict. Readers will gladly give themselves over to Patron, a master of light but sure characterization and closely observed detail. A small gem. 2006, Richard Jackson/Atheneum, 144p, $16.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 9 to 11. Starred Review. © 2006 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Phyllis Thompson (The ALAN Review, Summer 2008 (Vol. 35, No. 3))
At ten years old, Lucky has hit rock bottom: her biological mother is dead, her father is “absent,” and her most loyal companion in the world, HMS Beagle, leaves her in a dust storm in the desert. Lucky’s life is spinning out of control. It is not until she heads into the Mojave desert that she charts her own course and gains the perspective to take control of her life. However, holed up in a cave during a dust storm, she finds herself caring for a scared five-year old named Miles, who is also lost and motherless, instead of forging ahead with her own quest for stability and control. Hard Pan (pop. 34) is every town, and Lucky is every kid, whose issue is abandonment, whose life is complicated, and who knows one doesn’t have to be an adult to hit rock bottom. The Higher Power of Lucky is a story about vision and about the perseverance it takes to wait for the storm to pass and the dust to settle. Category: Abandoned Children/Friendship. YA--Young Adult. 2007, Atheneum, 134 pp., $16.95. Ages young adult.Johnson City, TN

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 2007 (Vol. 60, No. 5))
It’s been two years since Lucky’s mother died; since then her guardian has been Brigitte, her father’s first wife, who’s a long way from her native France in Lucky’s trailer home in the little desert town of Hard Pan, California (pop. 43). Ten-year-old Lucky is mostly happy in Hard Pan, hanging out with her knot-tying friend Lincoln (whose mother is determined her son will be president) and her dog, HMS Beagle, and eavesdropping on the various twelve-step groups that meet at the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center; at heart, though, she’s afraid that Brigitte’s stay is really only a temporary one. The book resorts to a threadbare convention, the misunderstanding of chance information, to drive Lucky to her climactic run from home, but the merits here lie not in original plotting but in the quirky and eccentric characters and setting. Hard Pan is vividly conceived, from the monthly deliveries of government surplus commodities (“It must be some kind of secret weapon,” says a local darkly of a delivery of inedible cheese) to the tightly connected knot of colorful inhabitants (Lucky is particularly plagued by five-year-old Miles, who wanders around mooching food and insisting that he be read to from Are You My Mother?). Lucky herself is intense yet vulnerable, understandably longing to be certain that Brigitte considers her worth staying for. Fans of more traditional stories of youngsters finally finding the home they deserve will enjoy this offbeat treatment of the classic theme. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2006, Jackson/Atheneum, 134p., $16.95. Grades 4-6.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2007)
Ten-year-old Lucky lives in Hard Pan, California, a tiny enclave on the outskirts of the Mojave Desert. Her legal guardian is a beautiful, melancholy Frenchwoman, Brigitte. Patron's episodic tale of a grieving, insecure little girl is never heavy-handed or maudlin, due in part to quiet bursts of humor. Her sensory descriptions, supported by Phelan's gentle spot art, animate this unique community. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2006, Atheneum/Jackson, 136pp, 16.95. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Janie Barron (The Lorgnette-Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 19, No. 3))
Lucky Trimble is ten years old and lives with her legal guardian in Hard Pan, California (population 42). When Lucky’s mother is electrocuted when she steps on a live electrical wire after a thunderstorm, her father sends for his first wife, Brigitte, who lives in France. Lucky doesn’t even recall what her dad looks like or even if she has ever met him before. Lucky really likes Brigitte, but she worries that Brigitte misses her home in France so much that she will go back and leave Lucky in an orphanage. Hard Pan is in the desert, far away from everyone and everything. There is nothing to do except play with friends and explore the old miner’s caves. Her best friend is Lincoln, named after the President, whose mom hopes that he will be President of the United States some day. Miles is five years old and loves to sneak cookies. Lucky has a part-time job cleaning up behind the town museum after each of the twelve-step and community-interest meetings are over. Lucky eavesdrops on the twelve-step meetings and hears the participants talk about finding their higher power. Lucky hopes that some day she can find her higher power and have some control over her life. One day, Lucky finds Brigitte’s passport, and she believes she is ready to go back to France. Lucky decides to run away so that Brigitte can’t leave. She packs her survival kit and heads out into a sandstorm. Miles, too, has run away. They find each other and hide in one of the miner’s caves. The two are found and returned safely to their homes. In the end, Brigitte legally adopts Lucky and prepares to open a restaurant in Hard Pan. Even though the story may be a little hard to understand in the beginning, it quickly becomes one that the reader doesn’t want to put down. Fiction. Grades 4 and up. 2006, Richard Jackson/Atheneum, 138p., $16.95. Ages 9 to 14.