Lucky (Avery Sisters Trilogy Series #1)

The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

“This is superior for its realism, its moderation, and its understated complexity of characters and relationships. Readers will drink up the drama and impatiently await the planned follow up titles.”

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“This is superior for its realism, its moderation, and its understated complexity of characters and relationships. Readers will drink up the drama and impatiently await the planned follow up titles.”

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

“This is superior for its realism, its moderation, and its understated complexity of characters and relationships. Readers will drink up the drama and impatiently await the planned follow up titles.”

Publishers Weekly

Vail (You, Maybe) again demonstrates a penetrating insight into the concerns of young teen girls, this time upending the conventions of the rich-girl novel. In the first of a trilogy about three sisters, 14-year-old Phoebe, the appealing narrator, and her two older siblings have been coached to view themselves and their über-successful investor mother as Valkyries ("Nobody-nothing-can intimidate us. We will never back down; we will never surrender," their mother tells them over breakfast). Less a Valkyrie than a people-pleaser, Phoebe has joined her best friends to plan a lavish eighth-grade graduation party, for which Phoebe has picked out a Vera Wang gown. But when her mother gets fired abruptly for what could be shady dealings, Phoebe is forced to think about money for the first time, and to wonder how much effect it has on her friendships and popularity. Vail gets the relationships exactly right, from the shifting twosomes among the sisters to the changing attitudes among the eighth-grade friends and their parents, and most especially, the shifts in behavior within her protagonist. Readers will absorb this in one fell swoop. Ages 12-up. (May)

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Children's Literature - Anna Byrd

Phoebe Avery is anxiously awaiting her middle school graduation. According to everyone who sees Phoebe's life from the outside in, she has everything a girl could want: she is beautiful, popular, rich, and carefree. Everyone, including her older sisters Allison and Quinn, describe her as lucky. As May begins, so does the planning for the extravagant graduation party for Phoebe and her four best friends, complete with a photographer, balloon animal centerpieces, and $100 dresses. Through a series of events, Phoebe finds herself caught in the middle of several situations that make her question who she is, who she wants to become, and whether or not she can always handle problems on her own. Arguments and misunderstandings test her friendships, old and possibly new boyfriends are a scary subject, and relationships within her family find new directions. Her life has always been wonderful and carefree, but when Phoebe now makes decisions, she feels as if she is constantly stuck between what others want for her and what she wants for herself. Is Phoebe as lucky as everyone thinks she is? This wonderful book shows with impeccable accuracy the thoughts and lives of a young teenage girl and her sisters, and the relationships that seem so hard at this poignant age. Rachel Vail brings her characters to life and makes readers eagerly await the next books in the series which will detail life through the eyes of the other two Avery sisters. Reviewer: Anna Byrd

VOYA - Amanda MacGregor

Everything has always come easy for Phoebe Avery. She is lucky, and she knows it. She lives in a mansion, has parents who spoil her, is class president, and has four best friends. About to graduate eighth grade, Phoebe and her pals plan an extravagant party to celebrate the end of middle school. When Phoebe finds out that her mother, the family's breadwinner, has been fired, her lucky streak ends. Determined to keep her situation under wraps, Phoebe looks for an excuse to pull out of the party that her family now cannot afford. She picks a fight with Kirstyn, her closest friend, accusing her of commandeering the planning of what Phoebe now feels is a tacky, excessive affair. In her haste to get out of the party while still keeping her secret, Phoebe worries she might have lost her friends in favor of saving face. Initially it is difficult to muster up much sympathy for Phoebe, whose life of privilege has created both a sense of entitlement and a lack of knowledge about real-world money issues. But Phoebe is more than just a one-dimensional character. Phoebe does not understand her family's money troubles, but she knows she does not want charity or pity. Her confusion over how to deal with this news and how it could affect her relationships feels genuine and realistic. The loss she experiences has less to do with shallow things like money and status and more to do with the deep complexities of security and friendship. Reviewer: Amanda MacGregor

School Library Journal

Gr 6-8- Rich girls, extravagant spending, and an elaborate party sound like the recipe for yet another in the long series of spoiled-rotten-girl books that have been abundant in the past few years. Luckily, this one is different. The first in a trilogy about the Avery sisters, it focuses on the youngest, Phoebe, whose picture-perfect family is facing a challenge. Mr. Avery is a kindergarten teacher, and it is clear that Mrs. Avery's income maintains the family's lifestyle: cars, housekeeper, pool, vacations, and a nanny who spends a lot of her time chauffeuring the girls around. When a business deal falls apart and threatens the family's financial security, loyalties, priorities, and relationships are brought into question. What rings so true is Phoebe's complete ignorance about money. Her family has it, they've always had it, and they never talk about it. It is a real transformation in the eighth grader's life when all of a sudden her parents start talking about what things cost and what they can (and can't) afford. Readers will find that the middle school characters act appropriately for their ages and the parents, while peripheral, are essential to their children's sense of self as young adults. Kindness and understanding emerge in unexpected, fresh, and satisfying ways, and readers will be looking forward to finding out what lies ahead for the Avery family.-Genevieve Gallagher, Murray Elementary School, Charlottesville, VA

Kirkus Reviews

Phoebe, "pretty, popular [and] rich," knows that she is lucky. Now 14 and about to graduate eighth grade, she's the youngest of the Avery women, Valkyries all: her beautiful, high-powered mother and her two older sisters. Then, just when Phoebe and her closest girlfriends are planning an exorbitantly expensive graduation party, Phoebe's luck runs out. She discovers that her mother, the main breadwinner in her family, has been fired, blamed for a big investment gone bad. Afraid to tell her acquisitive friends that she can no longer afford her share of the party, Phoebe tries to manipulate her way out, pretending that the party has become too overblown and blaming her best friend for the lapse. The story, which has a touching ending and something to say about the connections between friendship, trust and money, wants to have it both ways, however-for Phoebe to learn the lesson that being lucky in life isn't about stuff, it's about having family and friends who will stand by you-without forcing her to sacrifice anything real. (Fiction. 12 & up)

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“This is superior for its realism, its moderation, and its understated complexity of characters and relationships. Readers will drink up the drama and impatiently await the planned follow up titles.”

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

“This is superior for its realism, its moderation, and its understated complexity of characters and relationships. Readers will drink up the drama and impatiently await the planned follow up titles.”

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"This is superior for its realism, its moderation, and its understated complexity of characters and relationships. Readers will drink up the drama and impatiently await the planned follow up titles."

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

“This is superior for its realism, its moderation, and its understated complexity of characters and relationships. Readers will drink up the drama and impatiently await the planned follow up titles.”