Sheila Turnage’s Three Times Lucky
Does Sheila Turnage have a way with words! Mo, the twelve-year-old heroine in her 2012 debut middle-grade novel, Three Times Lucky, wouldn’t know a cliché if it hit her in the face (and she’d never use that tired old expression). Think how hard it is to find an interesting way to describe a heart racing with elation or fear. Mo: “My heart leaped like the cheerleader I will never be.” Here’s another nice line: “Uneasiness ran its fingertips across my shoulders.” And when she’s down: “I feel like a sky without stars.” You want to read this book now, don’t you?
alexandra alger 