Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
Chapters 1-5
Reading Comprehension

1. Why does Lucky have her ear to the hole in the wall?

2. What does Sammy do to make his story last longer?

3. What deal did Sammy make with himself?

4. What is Lucky’s job?

5. How did HMS Beagle get her name?

6. What nicknames does Brigitte call Lucky?

7. Why doesn’t Lucky like Brigitte’s mother?

8. How did Lucky’s mother die?

9. How did Brigitte come to be Lucky’s guardian?

10. What does Lucky think is wrong with her appearance?

11. What does Lincoln’s mother want him to be when he grows up?

12. According to Lincoln, what does the sign imply?

13. How does he fix the sign?

14. What deal does Lucky make with Miles?

15. When does Lucky’s meanness gland get activated?

_________________
©2007 abcteach.com
Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
Chapters 1-5
Vocabulary

anonymous __________________________________________________________________
banquette __________________________________________________________________
bolt __________________________________________________________________
burro __________________________________________________________________
capillaries __________________________________________________________________
creosote __________________________________________________________________
crevice __________________________________________________________________
dinette __________________________________________________________________
drastic __________________________________________________________________
enzymes __________________________________________________________________
frayed __________________________________________________________________
hoisting __________________________________________________________________
inventory __________________________________________________________________
jostling __________________________________________________________________
mangled __________________________________________________________________
pension __________________________________________________________________
scrotum __________________________________________________________________
scrounge __________________________________________________________________
secretion __________________________________________________________________
soldered __________________________________________________________________
specimen __________________________________________________________________
surplus __________________________________________________________________

Writing

1. Why do you think Lucky wants to find her Higher Power?

2. Lucky is worried about Brigitte returning to France. What would you do in Lucky’s place?
3. What would you put in your own survival kit?

_________________
©2007 abcteach.com
Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
Chapters 6-10
Reading Comprehension

1. Why do most residents of Hard Pan receive government surplus food?

2. What is wrong with the cheese?

3. What did Brigitte bring with her to Hard Pan?

4. How does Lucky want to improve the museum?

5. Why do the residents of Hard Pan gather at the post office each day?

6. What does Brigitte mean by the towels having “California softness”?

7. What did Lucky’s father send, and what didn’t he send?

8. What does Brigitte find in the dryer, and what does she do about it?

9. What is Lucky’s solution?

10. What does Short Sammy live in?

11. What has Sammy cooked, and what hasn’t he figured out how to eat?

12. What does Sammy think is wrong with Brigitte, and what is Lincoln’s solution?

13. What is in the urn?

14. What did the strange man tell Lucky to do with it?

15. What does Lincoln give Lucky?

_________________
©2007 abcteach.com
Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
Chapters 6-10
Vocabulary

agriculture __________________________________________________________________

centigrade __________________________________________________________________

commodities __________________________________________________________________

conversationalist ____________________________________________________________

corrugated __________________________________________________________________

cremated __________________________________________________________________

decipher __________________________________________________________________

gouging __________________________________________________________________

gruesome __________________________________________________________________

memorial __________________________________________________________________

muzzle __________________________________________________________________

pivoted __________________________________________________________________

veal __________________________________________________________________

viper __________________________________________________________________

ward __________________________________________________________________

Writing

1. Why might Hard Pan be Sammy’s Higher Power?

2. If you were Lucky, what might you want to do with the urn?
3. Why do you think Lincoln enjoys making knots?

_________________
©2007 abcteach.com
Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
Chapters 11-15
Reading Comprehension

1. What is Lucky’s favorite part of the anonymous meetings?

2. What does Lucky overhear about Miles’ mother?

3. Why did Mrs. Prender stop smoking?

4. How does Brigitte feel about parsley?

5. What does Lucky notice in Brigitte’s trailer?

6. How does Lucky hit rock bottom?

7. At Lucky’s bedtime, why doesn’t Brigitte want to be interrupted?

8. What course is Brigitte taking?

9. What manual does Lucky want to write when she grows up?

10. Who keeps the school bus waiting?

11. What is the First Sign?

12. What does Lucky realize about her sandy mushroom color?

13. Why does Lucky want the principal to have her baby that day?

14. Why do the Hard Pan students get sent home early from school?

15. Who is Miles concerned about?

_________________
©2007 abcteach.com
Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
Chapters 11-15
Vocabulary

adapted __________________________________________________________________

bawling __________________________________________________________________

cellophane __________________________________________________________________

culinary __________________________________________________________________

falter __________________________________________________________________

forage __________________________________________________________________

insight __________________________________________________________________

moral __________________________________________________________________

outlying __________________________________________________________________

peered __________________________________________________________________

quadruple __________________________________________________________________

tapering __________________________________________________________________

valve __________________________________________________________________

whim __________________________________________________________________

Writing

1. Do you agree with Lucky that she doesn’t have any control over her life?
2. If you were to write a manual for mothers, what instructions would you include?
3. If you were Lucky, would you tell Lincoln about running away? Why or why not?

_________________
©2007 abcteach.com
Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
Chapters 16-23
Reading Comprehension

1. What is the worst danger of running away?

2. What terrible thing does Lucky say to Miles?

3. What is the best way to stop Brigitte from leaving?

4. Why do Mrs. Prender and Lincoln call Lucky?

5. What slogan does Lucky use to keep herself going?

6. Why is HMS Beagle sitting by the pile of rags?

7. How does Lucky get the burr out of Miles’ foot?

8. Where do Miles and Lucky camp out?

9. How does Lucky get the beans open?

10. What happens to Lucky to make her want Miles to stay?

11. Why is Miles glad his mother is in jail?

12. How does the town know where to find Lucky and Miles?

13. What must Lucky do before she surrenders?

14. Why did Brigitte have her passport and other papers out?

15. What does Lucky do to the hole in the museum wall?

_________________
©2007 abcteach.com
Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
Chapters 16-23
Vocabulary

blotted __________________________________________________________________

buffer __________________________________________________________________

burr __________________________________________________________________

emerged __________________________________________________________________

exquisite __________________________________________________________________

gouge __________________________________________________________________

horrendous __________________________________________________________________

languid __________________________________________________________________

lurched __________________________________________________________________

puncture __________________________________________________________________

reservoir __________________________________________________________________

sophisticated __________________________________________________________________

veered __________________________________________________________________

wafted __________________________________________________________________

Writing

1. Why doesn’t Lucky want Miles along when she runs away?
2. How does Lucky become more like Brigitte when she wears her dress?
3. What do you think Lucky’s Higher Power is?

_________________
©2007 abcteach.com
Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
ANSWERS
Chapters 1-5
1. So she can overhear Short Sammy’s story about hitting rock bottom.
2. He goes on a tangent and talks about the old days when he was broke.
3. If Roy, his dog, is okay, he will stop drinking.
4. Cleaning up after the anonymous meetings.
5. From Charles Darwin’s ship, because she goes on scientific adventures with Lucky.
6. Mon choux, “my cabbage,” and ma puce, “my flea.”
7. Lucky thinks she is trying to lure Brigitte back to France.
8. She stepped on a power line after a storm.
9. Brigitte was married to Lucky’s father before Lucille, and he called her after the accident.
10. She thinks she is too much the same sandy, mushroomy color.
11. President of the United States.
12. That the children of Hard Pan are either slow-moving or slow-minded.
13. He adds a colon so that it means “drive slowly: there are children at play.”
14. She will give him a cookie and tell him one Olden Days of Hard Pan story if he doesn’t make
any noises.
15. When Miles is around.

Chapters 6-10
1. Because they don’t have jobs or make enough money.
2. It has no smell.
3. Her red dress, shoes, and one small suitcase.
4. She wants to create better displays of bugs.
5. To get their mail and catch up on the news.
6. Drying them in the dryer instead of on the line.
7. A small check, but no letter.
8. A snake; she duct tapes it shut.
9. She stomps on the dryer until it goes back out the vent.
10. An old water tank.
11. Chili; the cheese.
12. Sammy thinks she’s bored; Brigitte opening a restaurant.
13. Lucky’s mother’s remains.
14. Scatter the ashes at the memorial.
15. A knot with no ends to unravel.

_________________
©2007 abcteach.com
Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron
Chapters 11-15
1. When people tell stories about hitting rock bottom.
2. That she is in jail.
3. Because she didn’t want Miles to become a smoker, too.
4. It is essential.
5. Brigitte’s suitcase and passport are out.
6. She finds “proof” that Brigitte is going back to France.
7. She is working on her lesson.
8. Restaurant management.
9. “Certified Course in How to Raise a Girl for Guardians and Actual Mothers with Diploma.”
10. Miles.
11. When Lucky and Lincoln eye-smile.
12. That she is adapted to her environment, the desert.
13. So that the students can watch and Lucky can help in some important way.
14. A dust-storm is coming.
15. Chesterfield, the burro.

Chapters 16-23
1. Getting bored and lonely.
2. That his mother is in jail.
3. If Brigitte made her own decision to stay because she loved Lucky.
4. They’re wondering if she’s seen Miles.
5. “One Day at Time.”
6. The pile of rags is Miles.
7. With the spokes of the parsley grinder.
8. In the dugout of an old mine.
9. With a screwdriver.
10. She gets a bug in her ear and needs him to help her wait for it to die.
11. Because it means she’s not staying away from him on purpose.
12. Miles is always telling his grandmother about Chester and the dugouts.
13. Scatter her mother’s remains.
14. In preparation for adopting Lucky.
15. She plugs it up so that no sound escapes.

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©2007 abcteach.com