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Just My Luck

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Just My Luck
by Cammie McGovern
Harper, 2016.  228 p  Fiction

     Benny Barrows' mother has always told him that when he is having a hard time he should look for something who is having worse luck than he is, and try to help that person.  Trouble is, since his father had to have surgery for a burst aneurysm in his brain, Benny can't think of anyone who has had worse luck than his family. Adding to his unhappiness, his favorite teacher, Mr. Norris, has become depressed and distracted so nothing fun is happening at school. He has to leave class each day to go to Special Ed with a mostly-blind girl named Olga, and he never gets a footprint on the school's Pathway to Kindness, even though he is daily caring for his autistic brother George and in every way treating others with decency and respect. Fortunately, almost all Benny's "friends" that he thinks are being nice to him because they feel sorry for him turn out to be real friends who pull together at a fundraiser to help his mom pay his dad's medical bills. Benny is a fine little fourth-grade narrator who learns much from a difficult year, especially that "Everyone has bad days. You have to make good ones."
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