First. I hate it when people overreact to a single word and then the whole thing becomes a meta-event, and people who have never read the book are passing judgment on it. READ THE DANG BOOK PEOPLE BEFORE DECIDING IT’S BAD! (Okay. Enough soapbox. Granted, I’m a hypocrite, here, passing judgment on many books without reading them. Still. I don’t cause meta-events usually. So maybe it’s the meta-event thing that I’m reacting to. Enough.)

So, what did I think of this book by Susan Patron? Well, not much at first. It’s a quiet little book. (Really little — it’s only 134 pages.) But the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. It’s not a book that makes you shout: “Wahoo! This is the best book EVER!” It’s more a book that as you mull it over, you find yourself smiling about. Like Miles, the five year old who’s always mooching cookies, except he doesn’t really mooch, because Lucky told him he was a mooch so now he tries to trade things (like allowing Dot to wash his hair) for cookies. But people end up just giving him the cookies anyway. Or Lincoln Clinton Carter Kennedy, who’s mom wants him to grow up to be president, but who just wants to tie knots and get to the International Knot Tiers convention in England.

And then there’s Lucky. I think Patron really got an aspect of being ten here. Lucky’s not quite a child, but then she’s not quite grown up. She wants to find her Higher Power, because she wants to have some sort of control in her life. And she feels powerless right now. I think there’s a lot of 10 year olds who feel that way.

Nothing really major happens in the book. It didn’t make me laugh out loud. It didn’t make me cry. But, you know, it’s a good book.

Cross posted at The Newberry Project.