Lucky Broken Girl

Behar, R. (2017). Lucky broken girl. New York, NY: Nancy Paulsen Books.

Awards:

2018 Pura Belpré Award for Narration

Américas Award Commended Title

Summary: 

Life in America is beginning to improve for Ruth Mizrahi. The family has recently left Castro’s Cuba for the freedom America offers. Ruth has proved to her teacher she can be in the “smart class”, owns a pair of go-go boots, and has a couple of friends. All of that disappears in a split second when she is in a horrible car accident. Lucky Broken Girl details the better part of the year when Ruth is bedridden. Ruth learns about the meaning of friendship and the importance of facing one's fears. Author Ruth Behar draws from her own experience with the same injury and as an immigrant from Havana, Cuba. 

Reaction: 
“And I know I’m lucky. I’m not as broken as some other people.” (pg 53)

The beginning of this book is rich in the American Dream. Ruth’s family has immigrated from Cuba. She has proven to her teachers that she is not dumb; she is Miss Hopscotch Queen of Queens, and she has finally gotten a pair of beautiful red go-go boots. Her father has bought a blue Oldsmobile that he is infinitely proud of.  “It’s such a beauty and I always wanted a blue Oldsmobile when we lived in Cuba. Now we’re in America and I have one” (pg 29). 

But it isn’t long before everything goes horribly wrong. 

Author Ruth Behar offers a comparison between immigrant families with the main character Ruth and her neighbor, Rumi. Rumi’s family immigrated from India. His mother is overprotective and untrustworthy of America. Ruth and her family endure the horror of the accident and the lengthy process of healing. They stay in America while, when tragedy strikes Rumi’s family, they flee. 

The main character, Ruth, develops from an excited extrovert to a shy introvert. This can be attributed to the amount of time she spent in bed. When she is released from the cast, the thought of walking during physical therapy scares her to death. But with the support of her family and other important people that come into her life, she slowly makes the transition to going back outside. 


Ruth is not as determined as other characters. She doesn’t make it her mission in life to get better. Instead, she finds comfort in books and painting. Her fear of getting back up and into the world helps shape her into a realistic character. This also could be because of the experience author Ruth Behar had that mirror’s our lucky broken girl.

Connections: 

Activities: 

-“The patient has to have patience.” (pg 73). Students can do a word study on the origin of familiar words. 

-Give students background information to Cuba - music, history, famous people, etc. 

-Have students think about their bedroom. Have them imagine they are lying in their bed. Have them draw and/or describe the view from their bed. Consider this: what if they couldn’t leave their bed for a full year? What would their response be? 

-Ruth shares her favorite Cuban lullaby. Have students look up different lullabies and share their favorites. Explain why. 

-Imagine you are Ruth’s friend, Danielle. Write a letter to Ruth explaining why you stayed away so long. Include events that happened while Ruth was bedridden. 

-Describe sunshine to Ruth. 

-In a science classroom, students can study the different leg muscles in the human body. They can track what will happen to the muscles with little to no movement over the length of time Ruth is bedridden. 

-Students can study an X-ray of a broken leg and compare it to a leg that is intact. 

-Ruth is constantly writing letters to different gods, friends, and idols. Write a letter to one of these people about something happening in your life that you are worried about.

-Compare and contrast the Holocaust with the Cuban Revolution.  

-How do Ruth’s feelings about the boys that cause the accident change throughout the book? Find textual evidence to prove your answer. 

-Promote Lucky Broken Girl during Hispanic Heritage Month. 

-Write a news story about the accident. 

Books About Immigrants: 

Perkins, M. (2017). You bring the distant near. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

- A multigenerational novel that begins with a family immigrating from India to the United States. 

Littman, S. (2010). Life, after. New York: Scholastic Press.

- Dani has immigrated from Argentina after family members are killed during an attack. 

Gonzalez, C. (2010). The red umbrella. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

- A girl and her brother must flee Communist Cuba to live in Nebraska with a host family. 

Television: 

Kellett, G. C. and Royce, M. (creators). One Day at a Time. Act III Productions, 2017. 

This show is about a family who matriarch immigrated from Cuba. There are strong themes of family and culture. Be advised, there are some mature themes within the episodes.