Cover Image: Lizzy and the Good Luck Girl

Lizzy and the Good Luck Girl

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Member Reviews

A perfect book for a young reader. It's full of friendship and love and what we would do for one another. Definitely one I'd look out for to gift to younger readers.

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Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

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Lizzy and the Good Luck Girl
by Susan Lubner


#LizzyAndTheGoodLuckGirl #NetGalley



Kind-hearted Lizzy brings home strays. Animals are one thing but a runaway girl is something else! Lizzy brings her home too.

BUT

Lizzy doesn't tell her parents about it. Never!
If you join Lizzy on her adventure you will find out how resourceful she and Joss, and Charlotte, the good-luck girl with the 4 leaf clover are.

One of my favorite parts was the cat sweaters!
My thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for the free e book in exchange for my honest review.

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Young me would have been delighted to get my hands on this children's novel. The plot is fun and fast paced, and what little girl doesn't want a novel that heavily features cats?!
Consindering how much I enjoyed reading this, I feel like this would be a great read aloud for parents and younger readers.

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Lizzy is always on the lookout for good luck signs and with her bedroom above her parents' diner, she's got the perfect viewpoint. When she sees a cat sneaking into an abandoned building, Lizzy is ready to rescue it but finds a bigger surprise when she gets there. With the help of her friend Joss, Lizzy hides a young girl grieving and lost in her bedroom, hoping her four-leaf clover tattoo will bring her family luck.

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Charming and humorous, both child and adult readers alike will relate to Chloe's attempts to predict her own future with signs she sees.

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A nice easy read with a very comfortable pace. An absolutely beautiful story and one I would definitely read again. Would highly recommend this author.

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Many thanks to Netgalley in providing me an e-ARC of the book.

To be honest, I did not enjoy reading this book. The concept is interesting, where a girl starts to get good luck when she hides a runaway in her home. However, I did not like the execution and felt that there were many aspects that could have been better.

Let me begin with the character. I found Lizzy to be very hyper and paranoid and found her a bit irritating. She just does whatever she feels like, and there are no consequences to her actions. She is obsessed in listening to signs to tell her if her luck with prosper or not. I really thought she needed help and counselling for her behavior. I also did not like how the author has portrayed the runaway story-line in a very lighthearted manner. The story makes it sound like it is OK for young children to run away from home to teach their parents a lesson. Worst of all, the girls actually get away with it in the end and no body finds out.

However, that is not to say that the story was very bad. I did like Lizzy’s family and her friend Joss. They seemed to be more level headed than she was, and I liked how realistically the family was portrayed. In fact, I would have probably liked the book better if Joss was the main character. There are also quite a few quirky part in the story which I enjoyed, like the different names Lizzy comes up for the food, or the ideas that they have for raising money. I also liked the creative themes that Charlotte comes up with in her art while she is hiding in Lizzy’s room.

Overall, I really wanted to like this book and thought it has a few good scenes here and there, but in general, it seemed like a lot of random things were happening to the characters.

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I did not finish, I didn't enjoy it all. I really didn't get the story. I don't know what else to say since I didn't finish it.

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Lizzy from Lizzy and the Good Luck Girl was so me in middle school. I used to follow all the superstitions and make up my own so I could wish for all the things. I would’ve read this till it fell apart.
I love how @susanlubner captures Lizzy’s world perfectly and brings this lucky charm girl into her life and causes Lizzy to look outside herself and to have faith.
I wish on all the fallen eyelashes for you to read this book 💛

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While I enjoyed this story very much, I feel like there are a couple of problem areas that need to be addressed.
First is the runaway. I have a couple of problems with this, I feel like the solution of running away is one that a much younger child would have, not an almost 12 year old. The whole "my dad is leaving so I'm going to leave first" plotline is one I would have found more believable from a 7 year old, not a middle schooler. Next, Charlotte is an 11 year old runaway, and everyone seems very unconcerned about it. She's able to just buy a bus ticket, no one stops her or questions, no one tracks her, nothing. It's super unlikely that any of this would just happen without a large police presence. Especially with the Sheriff playing such a huge part in the story. Second is the idea that her parents wouldn't notice a girl living in Lizzy's closet, or that Lizzy thinks this is ok. That aside, I realize that these are my issues reading the story as an adult, not a kid.

I initially picked this up because the book is set in Maine and I live in Maine. (Though the tiny town being so close to Portland isn't as believable. Towns that near to Portland are on average a bit less sleepy/hyper-rural.) It is very well written and was a fun read.

Lizzy's mom is pregnant, and after her mom lost a previous baby in a car accident, Lizzy is extremely anxious about it (to the point where I wish her parents had encouraged her to talk to a therapist), seeing and following sings in everything. Like the butterfly flying across the street is a sign, but a sign for what? And agonizing over their meanings. One morning when attempting to rescue a cat Lizzy and her friend discover Charlotte, a runaway hiding in an old abandoned building. Charlotte has a 4 leaf clover drawn on her hand, so Lizzy decides that she is a good-luck charm and hiding her will ensure that her mom has the baby safely.

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This is a sweet story about a twelve year old girl named Lizzy who has a hard time with grief, loss, friendship, and trust. Its a great story for your early 5th to middle grader.
This has all the feels. I enjoyed reading it.
My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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This wasn’t anything special or memorable to me. I didn’t like the main character and feel like there was 0 character developement.

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*3,5 stars*

Such a heart-warming tale about a 12 years old girl.
A sweet and gentle story about friendship, trust, and coming to terms with loss and uncertainty in life.
I enjoyed reading it.

I'd like to thank to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review

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A solid middle grade novel. Lizzy is desperately looking for signs that her mom’s unborn baby will survive until birth, since she already lost one in a terrible car accident. When she and her best friend Joss discover a girl in an abandoned apartment, with a four leaf clover on her hand, it seems like a sign of good luck. Charlotte has run away from home and finds shelter, hiding with Lizzy.

Lizzy’s need to find signs everywhere to let her know that things will be okay is completely believable. Charlotte’s disappearance is not. It’s unlikely that police wouldn’t have tracked her to Lizzy’s, especially once they send an EMAIL to the parents. Oh well. It was still a good story and lots of cats got rescued. :)

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This is the story of 12-year-old Lizzy Sherman, her best friend Joss, and a surprise visitor named Charlotte. Lizzy has had a rough two years. Her family endured a bad car wreck which ended her mother’s previous pregnancy, killing the baby she carried. After that experience, her mother went into a deep depression and the entire family felt so much sadness over the loss. Since then, Lizzy has looked for signs of good luck in hopes that things will get better.

Lizzy’s mother and father run a diner located just beneath their apartment, and Lizzy’s mother is pregnant again. So now, more than ever, Lizzy is obsessively looking for good signs in the world around her. She sees signs in the clouds, in spilled drinks, in you-name-it!

Both Lizzy and Joss have a special interest in re-homing lost shelter cats. In fact, they are even working on a program through their school to raise money and bring awareness of the need to adopt. However, one morning their love of stray cats leads them into an old, abandoned building where they discover an 11-year-old runaway named Charlotte. Charlotte’s father and mother are in the process of getting a divorce and she can’t bear to be back at home as her father is preparing to leave. Once Lizzy discovers that Charlotte has what appears to be a 4-leaf clover on her hand, she is ready to move Charlotte into her closet and keep her hidden from family until after the baby is born. For luck!

“I tried not to think about the last time Mom had gone in an ambulance. The last time I had been in a hospital was the night we had lost the baby. But that night, I had lost something else, too. For months after the accident, Mom didn’t care about anything anymore. Not the diner. Not Dad. Not me. I wanted it to stop. I wanted a sign that things would be all right… a promise that all the awfulness would go away. More than a pink sky or a frozen puddle, more than anything in the world, I had just wanted my mother.”

With both good humor and sadness, this story is one of hope, uncertainty, friendship, and coming to terms with devastating loss. Nevertheless, this story also addresses running away from problems, lying to friends, and deceiving your parents. There’s so much up for discussion with this one!

My thanks to Netgalley and Running Press Kids for allowing me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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This isn’t a book I’d recommend to my 5th graders because nothing happens. This isn’t a book that would help them learn to plot a story because it’s very flat. The narrator is OK and kids might enjoy her, but overall, there’s nothing exciting to keep the kids entertained.

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Average read. Nothing spectacular in terms of the writing. I thought it was cute, but it doesn't stand out, in the middle grade category or in general. The voice was inconsistent and to me I felt like there was more telling than showing going on. Overall it wasn't bad, just average.

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Do you believe in luck? Do you believe in coincidences? Whether you call it luck, coincidence, fate, or destiny, I think we can all agree that those words are all a form of hope. Lizzy and the Good Luck Girl by Susan Linder is a sweet story about a girl and her search for signs of good luck.

On a cold November day, Lizzy and her best friend, Joss, find a runaway girl named Charlotte in an abandoned building. When Lizzy catches a glimpse of a four-leaf clover tattooed on Charlotte’s hand, she is convinced that Charlotte is good luck. Lizzy hides Charlotte in her closet with the hope of keeping her around for as long as she can. But as their friendship grows, Lizzy learns that luck is a perception that not all people subscribe to. Sometimes you just have to hope and trust that things will be OK without searching for signs.

The overall story is cute and I enjoyed the themes of friendship, volunteerism, and helping one another. However, the book is a very slow read and at times I found myself having a hard time carving out some time to finish it. I also think it’s strange that Lizzy and Joss were OK with harboring a runaway without telling an adult, especially when Lizzy and her parents have such a close relationship. Kids in grades 5 – 7 will enjoy it, but it will take a certain kind of kid for me to recommend this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Running Press Kids for the opportunity to read this E-ARC!

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A fun book, and certainly enjoyable for animal-loving readings. But overall the storyline wasn't strong and the ending left me unsatisfied. I wish there had been more depth to the characters.

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