by Susan Patron
First published 2007
Lucky Trimble lives in Hard Pan, California, a desert town with just 43 residents. At ten years old, she faces her worst fear: abandonment. Her guardian Brigitte wants to return to France, and Lucky knows what comes next. She'll get shipped off to some Los Angeles orphanage where they won't allow her dog, HMS Beagle. She'll lose her best friends Miles, who survives on cookies, and Lincoln, who ties knots and dreams of the presidency. Worst of all, she'll miss the anonymous twelve-step meetings where adults talk about their Higher Powers. Lucky decides she needs her own Higher Power, and she needs it now. Running away seems like her only option. She packs a survival kit and heads into the desert. But Lucky didn't count on a dust storm hitting just as she makes her escape.
Genres: fiction, family-life, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, survival
Setting: Hard Pan, California, France, Los Angeles
144 pages · Kindle Edition · Atheneum Books for Young Readers