Lucy is sent to live with a family of lighthouse keepers stationed on Lake Superior. The problem is that she has no interest in living on water when her father died in a shipwreck, possibly searching for a lost necklace that might not even be real. As she’s trying to fit in with the large, hard-working family she now lives live, she struggles to fit in with her daydreaming ways and fear of the water. Lucy wants to find the necklace to feel like her Papa is still around, but she quickly learns she isn’t the only person searching for it, and her search could put the Marin family she lives with out of their home.

This book manages to capture the cozy feeling of reading a book by L.M. Montgomery. Like Anne of Green Gables, Lucy of Lake Superior is a daydreamer who wants family but can get caught up in her own world and forget to pay attention to what is right in front of her. Lucy gets into trouble and isn’t always understood, but she manages to come out on top with her refusal to give up and kindness. Like Anne (and myself as a child), Lucy tries to deal with her fears and challenges through her imagination.

The Martins, in spite of the large number of them, are full of life and character. Lucy grows her relationship with each family member in different ways because they are individuals. Mr. and Mrs. Martin are absolute angel parents to their biological children and the child they take in, even when it is necessary to discipline them. The family is imperfect but good people, and the kind of family Lucy and readers happily want to belong to. Everyone has so much heart and spirit.

The book doesn’t remind me of L.M. Montgomery just because of the characters. The book has a sort of old-fashioned, friendly feel like in books I loved growing up like The Boxcar Children, The Five Little Peppers, Little House on the Prairie, and others that were considered older even when I was reading them. It’s a delight to find a similar book published today. Fans of those books or more recent books like The Penderwicks may enjoy this book.

The book also weaves in Ojibwe history and language naturally, as well as the history of Lake Superior. It’s not a major feature, but readers won’t be able to help learning a little bit about why lighthouses were used on the lake and about some indigenous history.

For me, one potential flaw of the book is its length. It’s short, so it doesn’t have as much time to develop Lucy’s relationship with the Martins or spend a lot of time helping Lucy get over her fears or anything else. There isn’t a lot of explanation, so you have to take everything at face value, which is mostly a flaw because Lucy herself doesn’t always know how to do that. The ending also maybe wraps up a little too nicely compared to a lot of stories today, but it fits well with the cozy, older style of books.

This is a sweet, charming story probably best for upper elementary school students or readers who want to feel a little bit like they did the first time they read about Anne Shirley.

I think this would be good for middle grade and younger readers! It has the same feelings as classic young readers authors like Kit Pearson, Judy Bloom and Jean Little.

Lucy Landry is an orphan and the book opens with the news that her current caregiver has passed and will need a new place to stay. Her guardian named a family who work a lighthouse on Lake Superior. Lucy grew up on a story of a lost necklace from a shipwreck in a cove that turns out to be near the lighthouse she's going to and she's convinced she will be the one to find the treasure. It's a lovely story of childhood dreams and wonder and building family with the people you're around.

From the very first page I was captivated by this story. 🤩

I absolutely loved Anne of Green Gables when I was younger and Lucy Landry reminded me so much of her! If I'd had this book then I would've cherished it. I'm sure it would have been an instant favorite.

Even though I'm older now I still adored this book! The characters... Oh my heart. 🥰 I loved the family dynamics and Lucy trying to fit into that. Ack!

It was perfect. 💖

I'm recommending it to everyone in sight so if you haven't read it... Do yourself a favor and get a copy. 🥰

*I received a complimentary copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I can't quite decide if I like this book. I like the historical setting and the focus on non-white characters. I like that Lucy is a unique character, even if she's a bit odd and not always especially likeable. I like the minor mystery element folding in with her ultimate need to find a place to belong. I just don't know if the pieces fit together well. It feels a little disjointed and underdeveloped.

A touching story about a young girl finding a family to be apart of. This reminded me a lot of my favorite book as a child, Lily's Crossing, at the beginning - an imaginative girl thrust into a situation without her parents and learning how to be brave - so I was hooked at first. But as the story went on, it lost some of the magic.

Part of this was because it was too short, so the story felt rushed. I would have liked to have seen more scenes with Lucy and the different members of the Martin family so that we could experience the growing bond between them. Instead, Lucy makes a lot of mistakes and makes things more difficult for the Martins, only to be redeemed because she did a big, selfless act. More explanation of the lighthouse and what was at stake if they didn't keep things tidy and perfect would have been helpful too. We are told Mr. Martin could lose his job if the lighthouse and the house aren't in order - but there isn't any explanation about that or how the lighthouse works. So when the inspector shows up, there isn't a sense of danger except he is a little rude (and then has a very sudden change of heart at the end, again because of Lucy's one big selfless act).

I did like that this seamlessly interweaves Ojibwe characters and some history/language into the story without making it the central focus. That is definitely lacking in historical fiction.

Overall, I didn't feel the relationships growing and connecting, which was unfortunate. This could be a special little historical story about a young girl who has lost it all, finding her place and her family. But it just never came together.

This story brims with light, a passion for life, hope, love, friendship, and family. It was both charming and touching. The author balanced the serious topic of death well with making Lucy equally light-hearted.

This was a good Middle Grade novel, that was really well written!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

I enjoyed how well this worked with the children's fiction genre. The concept worked well in this universe. Anna Rose Johnson has a great writing style and it worked with the genre. I enjoyed the use of the lighthouse and Lake Superior. It uses the found family perfectly and glad I got to read this. I was hooked from the first page and thought it worked with this type of book.

Anna Rose Johnson's blog is titled Timeless and Vintage Stories and she continues that in her second book about a lighthouse in 1912 in Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan. Lucy is an orphan with a vivid imagination and loves to play characters. Remind you of another orphan character... redhead...Prince Edward Island? I love the setting of a lighthouse on a tiny island on Lake Superior, the large Martin family that takes in Lucy, and touches of Ojibway and Christian heritage. The mystery of the lost necklace is a bit coincidental but it is a middle-grade novel and I think kids would enjoy it.

Captivating and heart wrenching. A perfect book for middlegraders.
Thank you to netgalley for letting me read this e arc in exchange for an honest opinion

This book was such a refreshing quick read. I hadn't read children's fiction in so long and forgot how much I love reading books like this.
I loved the historical accuracy in this book and bonus points for all the lighthouses! I personally love visiting lighthouses, just standing on the top of the tower watching over the sea. I imagine that's how Lucy was dreaming about her future and life in this book.
Lucy is such a beautiful well written character, I would love to see more of her in the future.

This was my first time reading a novel by Anna Rose Johnson and I'm obsessed! I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC to me in return for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

After Lucy's father dies in a shipwreck in 1912, leaving her an orphan, she is sent to live with the Martin family at an isolated lighthouse on a tiny island in the Great Lakes. Fearful of the water in light of her father's fate, Lucy has to overcome her nerves and learn to befriend her new family. Anna Rose Johnson has created a wonderful protagonist in Lucy, who alternates between shy self-doubt and telling fanciful stories about herself and her parents to boost herself up. The novel is full of charming turns of phrase and vivid descriptions that bring Lucy's world to life. A search for a lost gem moves the story forward, but the depth of Lucy's character development and shining prose truly make this book stand out. I will be using this in my classroom next year for a book study.

Reading this lovely book took me back to my early reading days with Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott and to my early librarian days with the Dear America series. There was definitely that vibe around this. The story is fanciful and features the familiar trope of young child left alone after terrible tragedies who finds a new and fruitful life.

I found the main character appealing as she tried so hard to mask her fears and insecurities with imagination ("I am a Princess of Acadia!") The quest she set for herself in finding the lost necklace was a good element to move the story along, and the lighthouse setting was wonderful. The star here, though, is the family dynamic. The Martin family is big and loud but also loving and responsible. Readers will want to be a Martin!

There were many touchstones in this story for me (a 61 year old reader), and I hope this will appeal to middle grade readers looking for adventure. This could also spark some interest in Great Lakes history, especially those who live on the shores of those lakes.

This sweet and heart-wrenching story was beautifully written. The history was so thorough and entwined with the story I was captivated. A perfect adventure for middle grade readers.

3.5* rounded up.
The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry is a sweet story reminiscent of L. M Montgomery. Lucy has led a lonely life and has to move to a different family due to sad circumstances. Lucy struggles to integrate with the busy Martin family and their little Lighthouse island while missing her mother and father. There is a side story of a shipwreck and a ruby necklace that reminds Lucy of her father. The best thing about the book is the representation of the Anishinaabe people. Lucy, her father and the entire Martin family are Anishinaabe and the book incorporates a lot of Ojibwe words.

It is fitting that one of the novels mentioned in the Luminous Life of Lucy Landry is The Story Girl. The book felt very L.M. Montgomery, the author of both the Story Girl and Anne of Green Gables. Lucy uses her imagination to deal with the tragedies and stresses of her life, and despite her best efforts, she cannot help but be at the center of many minor disasters. The way she creates characters to put on like armor when she is upset, shy or scared is a nice character trait. This is a comfy story with a satisfying if a little too perfect ending.

As a lover of good fiction, I must say that I am totally in love with this story, although I don't know if it counts as a historical.

This adventurous story takes us to Lucy Landry, a little orphan who is surprisingly torn from her home for eleven years and taken to a small island to live with a new family that runs a lighthouse.

It has been enlightening to see the life of the families in charge of the maintenance and operation of a lighthouse, and how they live this when they have small children in their care, since the rules they had to comply with were too strict (more when we consider that small children are a case).

On top of this, we get a fraction of adventure on Lucy's part as she immerses herself in the search for a lost necklace, which was her way of honoring her late father, who was a sailor and spoke to her every time he came back to her about the legend.

Little Lucy is both excited and fearful of this new adventure, being very imaginative and dreamy, this leads her to get into a lot of trouble; as she tries to fit in with her new family her efforts end up being unsuccessful as she always seems to do everything wrong, so she keeps closing herself off in her own imaginative world.

In the end a touching found family is formed, which teaches us to face our fears and not to lose our essence, and that changes, although not easy, are necessary and often important.

I loved that such a Middle Grade story filled me with so much adult reflection.

#TheLuminousLifeofLucyLandry #NetGalley.

I absolutely loved this book. Lucy gave me vibes of Anne from Anne of Green Gables and Lyra from His Dark Materials - girl who is trying to figure out where she fits in the world and doesn’t always get it right but keeps learning and growing. I found her really compelling and loved discovering with her more about the Anishinaabe culture. The Martin family was also delightful, each of them having a distinct voice and personality. The conclusion of the story felt a bit pat as an adult reader but would absolutely be appropriate for the target audience. I look forward to discovering more works by this author, who has become a must read for me.
Thank you to NetGalley & Holiday House for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I found the book hard to get into. It felt really forced. The characters did not really pop for me and I found it hard to root for them.

I believe The luminous life of Lucy Landry is a beautiful told from Lucy's eyes in a journey to find what she once thought was everything she had, reminders of her father.
Even though the story was good and original, I couldn't enjoy it fully, there was just something missing for me, it was as if I was reading a book for a child (and although I enjoy those stories as well) it was just pulling me back a lot of the time.
The story itself was magical and original, which I applaud the writer for!

The format in which it's provided (which has nothing to do with the author) was a little uncomfortable to read in, since the PDF can't adapt well to phones and you always have to be zooming in and moving the screen.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book!