Lizzy and the Good Luck Girl

Lizzy, 12, lives above her family’s diner, the Thumbs-Up, in East Thumb, Maine. Ever since a car accident two years earlier caused her mother to lose the baby she was carrying, Lizzy has been watchful for signs of things to come: when leaves swirl at her feet in the wind, for example, does it signify trouble brewing or an opportunity? Lizzy and her best friend, Joss, volunteer at an animal shelter and are knitting cat sweaters that they hope to sell to raise funds. When they follow a stray into an abandoned building, they discover Charlotte, a girl who has run away to escape trouble at home. After the building burns down, Lizzy invites Charlotte to hide in her bedroom, in part because she sees Charlotte’s temporary tattoo of a four-leaf clover as a sign of good luck for her family’s soon-to-arrive baby. But when Charlotte’s family searches desperately for her (and it turns out that cats don’t care for sweaters), Lizzy must learn to accept uncertainty. Characters are fully formed, and town details bring the reader into her world. Lizzy’s struggles to adjust when events don’t go according to plan are easily relatable in this coming-of-age journey that celebrates embracing the messiness of real life. Ages 8–12. [em]Agent: Linda Epstein. (Nov.) [/em]