Lucky Place, The

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.
In the end, Cassie faces great loss, but by also
facing the truth about her family, and learning
to look at them with unflinching love, she
discovers a stronger sense of self.

Advanced praise for
The Lucky Place