Lucky Broken Girl

By: Ruth Behar

Narrated by: Ruth Behar

Winner of the 2018 Pura Belpre Award!
A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of the Century

“A book for anyone mending from childhood wounds.”—Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

In this unforgettable multicultural coming-of-age narrative—based on the author’s childhood in the 1960s—a young Cuban-Jewish immigrant girl is adjusting to her new life in New York City when her American dream is suddenly derailed. Ruthie’s plight will intrigue readers, and her powerful story of strength and resilience, full of color, light, and poignancy, will stay with them for a long time.

Ruthie Mizrahi and her family recently emigrated from Castro’s Cuba to New York City. Just when she’s finally beginning to gain confidence in her mastery of English—and enjoying her reign as her neighborhood’s hopscotch queen—a horrific car accident leaves her in a body cast and confined her to her bed for a long recovery. As Ruthie’s world shrinks because of her inability to move, her powers of observation and her heart grow larger and she comes to understand how fragile life is, how vulnerable we all are as human beings, and how friends, neighbors, and the power of the arts can sweeten even the worst of times.

Amazing

We love this story so much. And the authors note
is really cool and interesting. We love that it's a true story.❤👍

Lucky Broken Girl

I loved this book! It was well written! I recommend it to anybody! Well done!

Best reading

I enjoy this story, it was such a great book. What I learn about this story is that everyone needs healing. The young Ruth starts with being broken from accident, that Ramu brother falls out the window and dies, Danielle also needs to heal with father being absent. Ruth’s mother is the 24 hour caregiver and becomes angry. The lesson in this book are unforgettable...

Should have read the print version

Good story- I had a very hard time with the narration. It is read by the author, so I assumed she would be good at telling the story- she read so S L O W L Y with weird pauses in the middle of sentences, it felt like she was reading to a very small child, who would not understand the words if she read at normal conversation speed. The mommy voice sounded so whiny at times, and some other characters too- I had to repeat the sentence in my head using a more “normal” tone of voice. I think I would have enjoyed it more in print.

narrator didn't help the story.

the novel itself is solid, but perhaps the narrator should have been a professional and not the author. Weird affect.