Patron, Susan. The higher power of Lucky

Patron, Susan. The higher power of Lucky. Atheneum, 2006 [978-1-4169-0194-5/1-4169-0194-9]
This 2007 Newbery winner is a warm comfortable read about an 10-year-old orphan girl living in a small town (population 43) in California. After her mother died, her father convinced his first wife, who lived in France, to be her guardian so he could take off. Lucky, the girl, has a friend of a boy her age and another around five. This 134 page book tells of life in a small town with its share of colorful characters. Someone mentioned here that the word scrotum is written early in the book and worried about teachers having to define it. At the end of the book, the word is defined appropriately in the summation of the story. While it is a wonderful book, because of the age of the main character (10) and the illustrations, I don't think it will be very popular in the middle school but will be great for elementary students.