Zu Vincent Book Title: The Lucky Place Publication Date: April 1, 2008 Publisher: Front Street Books ISBN: 1-932425-70-5; 978-1-932425-70-3 Author's Website: http://www.zuvincent.com

Description of Book:

Here's what I think. I think having two daddies
is like riding the elephant. You don't know until
you get up there what an elephant smells like,
or how high you will be on the elephant's back.
But then you realize. And the basket tips one way
and then the other, like you might fall, every time
the elephant steps.

When her father, Sikes, gets drunk and forgets
three-year-old Cassie at the races, it's the last
straw for her mother. Soon Cassie and her
brother, Jamie, have a new dad and move into
what their mother calls their Lucky Place, where
her two little brothers are born. Cassie wants
to believe in the Lucky Place, but behind the
rosy picture of sixties suburbia is another, more
fragile and complex world.

Cassie adores her new dad, Ellis. If only
Jamie would love him, too. If only their
charming, sloppy-drunk father would quit
popping in and out of their lives to ruin things.
If only their mother would stop pretending.
They might be happy on Diamond Street.
Then during a family trip, Cassie learns
a terrible secret about Ellis that threatens to
shatter the dream of the Lucky Place forever.

 

About the Author:

Zu holds an MFA from Vermont College where she was awarded Harcourt's post-grad semester in 2006. Her short stories and features have sold to numerous literary journals and magazines including Redbook, Harper's and Yoga Journal, and her non-fiction has been published by Harcourt, Signet and Plume. She writes for both children and adults.

Visit her website at: www.zuvincent.com

Excerpt:

There are always secrets.

"Mum's the word," says Daddy. "We were never at the races." He has hold of our hands and we're standing in a mash of people. He lets go to drink from the secret skinny bottle he keeps inside his coat. His eyes crinkle at the edges, and he pushes his hat way back on his head and pulls it forward again.

Daddy's hair is curly black and his eyes are very blue. He calls me Baby Doll. Jamie is his little man. Jamie's hair is curly black and his eyes are very blue, too. Daddy says Jamie can charm the pants off a snake. I can't charm the pants off a snake.

"This here's my little girl, this here's my Baby Doll," says Daddy to the man with fat gold buttons.

Reviews:

"A quietly powerful and important story. Zu's
vignettes weave a novel that, from moment to
moment, takes your breath-then gently hands
it back to you again. Lovely."  

          -Jacqueline Woodson, author of Hush

 

 "The Lucky Place is a pitch-perfect little symphony."  

          -Tim Wynne-Jones, author of The Maestro

 

"A magical book-joyful and heartbreaking-singing
with life. Zu leads us gently into the heart and soul of
a girl we come to love. I didn't want it to end."  

          - Susan Wooldridge, author of Poemcrazy