Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar
Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar tells the story of Ruthie, the lucky broken girl, who suffered a broken leg during a car accident when she was in fifth grade. She was told she was lucky because only her leg was broken, but she was stuck in a body cast and bedridden for nearly a full year. She watches her mother struggle to care for her "broken girl" and her family to pay her medical bills. Throughout this story, we see a girl who is resilient yet feels helpless. During her year in bed, Ruthie finds a new world in books and art. So much so that when she gets her casts off she does not want to leave her bed. This book is filled with hope, grief, spirituality, and most importantly luck.
Ruthie struggles throughout her time stuck in bed to keep a hold of the self she once was; she finds that she has become a different Ruthie than she was before the accident. Not better or worse, just different. She grew during her time in the cast: both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Ruth Behar wrote this autobiographical story to help herself through the pain of that time and coincidentally can help many more by sharing this story.
Lucky Broken Girl is a perfect middle grade novel that can help those children trying to find their place get through their struggles and still find hope. Other books that share similar themes about growing up, coming of age, and rich perspectives are:
- Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (shows diverse perspective as the main character has Asperger's syndrome and deals with family loss and grieving)
- Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (deals with coming of age in a new country much like Ruthie and an immigrant's journey in America) - told in verse
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (shows an autobiographical story of Jacqueline growing up in the 1960s deals with coming of age and experience of growing up African American during this time) - told in verse
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