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Reviewed by:
  • Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar
  • Karen Coats
Behar, Ruth Lucky Broken Girl. Paulsen/Penguin, 2017 [256p]
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-399-54644-0 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-399-54646-4 $10.99
Reviewed from galleys         R Gr. 4-6

After leaving Castro's Cuba in 1966 to join their family in New York, Ruthie's family is involved in a car accident that leaves ten-year-old Ruthie in a body cast. Now she can't do anything but stare at the ceiling and feel sorry for her mother, who was already mourning Cuba and suddenly has to stay inside all the time and care for her daughter. Taking a cue from her friend, Ramu, Ruthie prays to Shiva as well as her Jewish God and, upon learning about Frida Kahlo and her physical travails, adds her into the mix as well. Her real challenge comes, however, when, after ten months in bed, she has to learn to walk again. The diction of her first-person narration is characterized by the careful formality of someone who learned English by the book in the 1960s, and though Ruthie is sometimes frustrated with her situation and angry at the boys who caused the accident, she never fully loses her resiliency or her energy. Readers may need some support to think about the differences between everyday life and medical procedures in the 1960s and today, but Ruthie provides a lot of welcome context for the way her life is structured. She smoothly integrates the layered immigration stories of her grandmother, Ramu's family, her Mexican neighbor, and her own family, giving her story a pleasing accessibility that complements and expands impressions young readers may have of [End Page 400] immigration, urban life, and coming back after tragedy. An author's note reveals the autobiographical basis of the story.

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