Lucky Broken Girl

By Ruth Behar,

Book cover of Lucky Broken Girl

Book description

Winner of the 2018 Pura Belpre Award!

"A book for anyone mending from childhood wounds."-Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

In this unforgettable multicultural coming-of-age narrative-based on the author's childhood in the 1960s-a young Cuban-Jewish immigrant girl is adjusting to her new life in New York City…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Lucky Broken Girl as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Lucky Broken Girl is about overcoming adversity and finding hope. 

Ruthie Mizrahi and her family immigrated from Cuba to New York City. Immigration brings lots of new challenges, especially learning a new language. Ruthie is adjusting fairly well until she’s in a car accident and breaks her leg. As part of her recovery, Ruthie gets a body cast that stretches all the way from her chest to her toes. 

I read this book because my sister, Robin, was also in a car accident and ended up in the same kind of cast as Ruthie. My sister’s accident was the inspiration…

Ruth Behar writes for both adults and children and is a multi-award-winning writer and a Cuban-American Anthropologist. She’s also Jewish with Ashkenazi and Sephardic roots. Based on the author’s real experiences, we follow ten-year-old Ruthie and her family who are recent Jewish-Cuban immigrants trying to make a new home in 1960s Queens, NY after Castro comes to power. Just as Ruthie is adjusting to school and making new friends, a devastating car accident puts her in a body cast for a year. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking, and inspiring story. I particularly loved her friendship with recent Indian immigrant, Ramu, who…

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