The Luck of the Buttons

Ylvisaker sets her agreeable story of the summer of 1929, when life begins to change for ungainly 12-year-old Tugs Button, in the small town of Goodhue, Iowa. Born into a downtrodden family that "considered victory, even for one's affiliated party in national politics, showing off," good-natured, plainspoken Tugs is accustomed to being called names like "rapscallion" and "know-it-all." But when wealthy Aggie Millhouse asks to run the three-legged race with her at the Independence Day picnic and they win, Tugs begins to question whether she might be able to break out of the Buttons' tradition of bad luck. After she also wins the patriotic essay contest and a Kodak camera, she declares, "I'm going to go on being lucky," to the horrified Button clan. As Ylvisaker builds an increasingly suspenseful tale revolving around a dapper, silver-tongued newcomer with plans for starting a newspaper with citizens' money (think The Music Man), she presents a multitude of somewhat stereotypical characters who can be hard to keep track of, but succeeds in her portrayal of a cozy, close-knit community. Ages 8–12. (Apr.)