LUCKY

Phoebe, “pretty, popular [and] rich,” knows that she is lucky. Now 14 and about to graduate eighth grade, she’s the youngest of the Avery women, Valkyries all: her beautiful, high-powered mother and her two older sisters. Then, just when Phoebe and her closest girlfriends are planning an exorbitantly expensive graduation party, Phoebe's luck runs out. She discovers that her mother, the main breadwinner in her family, has been fired, blamed for a big investment gone bad. Afraid to tell her acquisitive friends that she can no longer afford her share of the party, Phoebe tries to manipulate her way out, pretending that the party has become too overblown and blaming her best friend for the lapse. The story, which has a touching ending and something to say about the connections between friendship, trust and money, wants to have it both ways, however—for Phoebe to learn the lesson that being lucky in life isn’t about stuff, it’s about having family and friends who will stand by you—without forcing her to sacrifice anything real. (Fiction. 12 & up)