Review: Three Times Lucky (Slice 23 of 31)

Title: Three Times Lucky
Author: Sheila Turnage

Publication: May 10, 2012

Source: I bought this one in my last Scholastic order (gotta love the book box)

My Summary: Mo is an orphan who was found as a baby floating down the river on a makeshift raft during a hurricane.  She lives in a very small town in North Carolina with the Colonel and Miss Lana.  They run a small cafe that is the lifeblood of the small town. Mo is worried about the mystery of her origin and she is forever looking for clues and trying to figure out who her mother is and where she came from.  This is the biggest mystery in her life.  Until, one day a detective walks into their cafe.  Then, one of their neighbors is found murdered.  All of a sudden, this small town is in an uproar.  Who could have wanted to kill their neighbor?  Mo and her best friend Dale take it upon themselves to investigate further and clear Dale’s name of suspicion.  What comes next are twists and turns and surprises that make this mystery exciting and fun to read.

My Thoughts:  I absolutely LOVED this book.  I completely agree that this book was deserving of the Newbery Honor that it received in January.  The book is full of lovable characters and beautiful voice that kept me turning pages well into the night.  I am a sucker for a good mystery so I loved that this one was so well-constructed.  I really was surprised by the solution to the mystery and found myself suspecting many of the characters throughout the book.  I like that the author also really wrote about the small-town life and I got to know a lot of the characters well.  The style of writing was amazing and stayed very true to the point of view.  Here are just a few gems from the book:

As we get to know Mo and Dale in the beginning of the book, there are many points in which I found myself chuckling, but this one seemed to capture the personality of the narrator so well:
“He swore, his voice soft as a breeze through the reeds.  Dale started swearing last year.  I haven’t started yet, but the way things are going, I could at any moment.”

Another description that really blew me away came much later in the book:
“Anybody that says he ain’t scared in a hurricane is a liar or a fool.  That’s what the Colonel says.  A hurricane spins up like you’re nothing, and takes your world apart like it’s nothing too.  There’s no time in it, no sense of the sun moving, no waxing or waning light.  All you can do is breathe, and ignore the world flying to pieces beyond your door.”

I absolutely recommend this book to students grade 4 and up and all adults.

5 out of 5 Stars

This post is part of the Slice of Life challenge.  I am writing a blog post every day in the month of March to share for this challenge.  The challenge is hosted by the lovely teachers at the Two Writing Teachers blog.  

Author: Andrea

I am an instructional technology coach in a middle school in Milwaukee, WI. I have been teaching for over 20 years in many grade levels ranging from first through eighth grade. I am a lifelong book nerd.

9 thoughts on “Review: Three Times Lucky (Slice 23 of 31)”

  3. My mystery shelf is a little low on good titles. I will be looking for this one in our next book order.

  6. Although I teach young primary students, I enjoy a truly good novel for young readers which this sounds like it is! Reading them is fast and reminds me of when I was a young reader 🙂

  7. I love a mystery too. I will keep my eye out for this book. Isn't it interesting that Linda couldn't get into the book but Ramona loved the book. I will have to see for myself.

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