Lucky Broken Girl

Behar, R. (2017) Lucky Broken Girl. New York, NY: Nancy Paulsen Books

Loosely based the author’s own experiences, this story is about a young girl name Ruthie Mizrahi. Ruthie’s family are immigrants from Cuba, so English is not her first language.  This puts her in the “dumb” fifth grade class.  So she and her friend Ramu, who is from India, work hard to learn English so they can be promoted to the “smart” class.  Just when everything seems to be going right, Ruthie and Ramu are promoted, she gets new white go-go boots, her dad gets his dream Oldsmobile; Tragedy strikes.  Her family gets in a terrible automotive collision which kills several people, and leaves Ruthie with a severely broken leg.  She is wrapped in a almost full body cast and confined to her bed for the next year.  The ordeal weighs heavily on her family, especially Ruthie and her mother.  There are ups and downs along the way as they all learn and grow.  Ruthie becomes an avid reader trapped in her bed, so by the time she goes back to school she is the smartest in the “smart” class.  Ramu’s little brother Avik dies falling out a window, so they move back to India.  A man named Chicho moves in to Ramu’s old apartment and becomes a good friend and role model to Ruthie.  Eventually her leg heals, but she gains a fear of moving on her leg.  Her friend Danielle’s old go-go boots help her finally get on her feet.

My feelings for this book rollercoastered as much as Ruthie’s situation.  I suppose that is the hallmark of a good book.  Coming from a multicultural family myself, I really enjoyed seeing that same aspect in Ruthie’s.  That said, I certainly never thought about cultural diversity in Cuba, so this book was a bit of an eye opener in that sense.

This book is one of my required reading for YA lit.