The Lucky Place
Grade 6–9—Readers meet Cassie when she is three years old and her inebriated father leaves her behind at the racetrack. Her older brother Jamie is just capable of keeping up with his dad, but not able to make him realize that his sister has gotten lost. She is returned home by the police and their mother eventually realizes that this man is not a competent father. Cassie relates the story, noticing events and describing them as a young child does, requiring readers to complete the picture. Mom brings home Ellis, New Daddy, and Cassie can't help but feel his strength. Old Daddy tries to hold the children's loyalty, even as Ellis becomes increasingly the presence and support they need. Cassie's voice changes as she grows into a 12-year-old who comes to know that inside herself is the real lucky place that she can truly count on. The adults in her world have vices and character defects aplenty, but mostly they love her and do what they can to make things right. Taking place in California in the late 1950s and early '60s in one of those identical tract-home subdivisions, Vincent's novel ably creates a world that makes promises it can't keep. The sadness of life and the way children absorb the sorrows around them are convincingly conveyed. The uncertainty of Cassie's relationships with her step, whole, and half brothers, as well as with the Daddies and her mother, stays true to a child's understanding and attempts to decode events. A stunning fiction debut by an author to watch.—Carol A. Edwards, Denver Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.