The Southern Girl Novel. It’s pretty much a genre in and of itself in the children’s literary world. Some years produce more of them than others but they all tend to follow the same format. Sleepy town plus spunky girl equals mild hijinks, kooky townspeople, self-awakening, etc. After a while they all start to blend together, their details merging and meshing and utterly impossible to separate. I’m just mentioning all this as a kind of preface to Three Times Lucky. Sure, you can slap a Gilbert Ford cover on anything these days and it’ll look good. It’s how the insides taste that counts. And brother, the one thing I can say with certainty about Three Times Lucky is that you will never, but ever, mistake it for another book. We’ve got murder. We’ve got careening racecars. We’ve got drunken louts and amnesia and wigs and karate and all sorts of good stuff rolled up in one neat little package. I’ve read a lot of mysteries for kids this year and truth be told? This one’s my favorite, hands down.
It was just bad timing when you get right down to it. Dale just wanted to borrow Mr. Jesse’s boat for a little fishing and his best friend Mo LoBeau would have accompanied him if she hadn’t been working the town’s only café while her two guardians (the elegant Miss Lana and the amnesia-stricken Colonel) were unavailable. Then Mr. Jesse offered a reward for the boat, and that seemed worth taking advantage of. That was before he ended up dead. Caught inadvertently in the middle of a murder mystery, Mo decides to help solve the crime, hopefully without making Detective Joe Starr too angry in the process.
A good first page is worth its weight in gold in a children’s novel. I always tell the kids in my bookgroup to closely examine the first pages of any book they pick up. That’s where the author is going to clue you in and give you a hint of how splendid their writing skills are. Heck, it’s the whole reason I picked up this book to read in the first place. I had finished my other book and I needed something to read on the way home from work. Deciding amongst a bunch o’ books, I skimmed the first page and was pretty much hooked by the time I got to the bottom. It was this sentence that clinched it: “Dale sleeps with his window up in summer partly because he likes to hear the tree frogs and crickets, but mostly because his daddy’s too sorry to bring home any air-conditioning.” Aside from the character development, I’m just in awe of the use of that term “too sorry” which sets this book so squarely in North Caroline that nothing could dig it out.
Turnage’s writing just sings on the page. Naturally I had to see what else she’d created and the answer was a stunner. Mostly she’s done standard travel guides to places like North Carolina (no surprise) and some haunted inns. The kicker was her picture book Trout the Magnificent. It was her only other book for kids so I checked to see if my library had a copy. We most certainly do . . . from 1984. To my amazement, Ms. Turnage has waited a whopping twenty-eight years to write her next book. The crazy thing? It was worth the wait. I mean, I just started dog-earring all the pa
I agree that it wasn’t Pullman’s intention, but that’s a method a lot of authors tend to take when technology proves an inconvenience. Good advice on Way Down Deep! We had a devil of a time figuring out where to put that in my library system. I think we eventually housed it in the YA section for the younger YA readers.
I really enjoyed this review! And I enjoyed the book too
One question — I might have missed something, but I went back over and over this book, and as far as I can tell, it’s a book set in present day eastern North Carolina that only has one nonwhite character (Mr. Li). Does that seem as impossible — and problematic — to you as it does to me?
You’ve made me very happy today for two reasons:
1. Though it is brief and in passing, you made a comparison to my #1 favorite children’s novel, Each Little Bird That Sings. If 3xLucky has that kind of feel, my expectations bar just grew a few notches.
2. I just ordered this book from Amazon yesterday!
Thanks for making my day a little brighter!
It’s a good point, Sam. Of course the town is incredibly small and there are certainly pockets of all-white communities down there. If it were a larger group of folks I might have had more of an issue with it. I was going to say that Turnage never clarifies race on any of the characters, but that’s kind of a cop out on my part. I’m glad you brought it up and I’d be interested in what other folks think.
I loved this book it was great. I liked the mystery aspect as it added an extra element to the story taking it a step above quirky southern story. I heard it described as Because of Winn Dixie meets Savvy. Very enjoyable.
Yes, I’m interested in the Winn Dixie comparison since I didn’t see it myself. Not to say it isn’t there, but it’s interesting to me that Winn Dixie is our de facto Southern Girl Novel. The Savvy comparison baffles me. Maybe because they both have cool covers and . . . um . . . star girls? I’m out to sea.
I’ve been looking for middle grade mysteries! Thanks, Betsy. I went to put it on hold, saw that our library didn’t have it listed as ordered, put in a purchase request linking to your review, and a couple hours later got an email saying they’ve decided to purchase it.
I’m curious — why did NYPL decide to catalog Way Down Deep as young YA? I recollect it as straight middle grade. Not so?
Not sure myself. Of course there’s much to be said for having younger books in the teen area for YAers who aren’t ready for the older fare. But that was before my time, catalogwise.
I <3 this one too. I think the Savvy comparison comes because there is a countrified feeling to it that is present in Savvy as well. A bit of off kilter, if you will. I've been meaning to blog it for a while. Definitely worth a re-read. Just the right amount of quirk.
While I am always on the look out for diversity, this wasn't a case of glaring whiteness to me. Small towns are often (in my experience) all one way or another. That said, it is something to think about while looking at the field of new pubs.