Title: Lucky Phoo
Author: Stacia Deutsch & Rhody Cohon
Release Date: August 1, 2013
Age Range: 9+
Pages: 109
My Rating: 5/5 stars
Seventh graders Caylie Jiang-Kahn, Lauren Blindell and Sabrina Robinson are making a movie about their friendship when a dirty stray dog shows up and ruins the day. In frustration, Lauren mutters, “Oh phooey,” which leads to the girls naming the dog “Phoo.”
When Phoo is caught and taken to the animal shelter, the girls agree to foster him until he can be adopted. They immediately notice something strange. Every time the dog is around, lucky things seem to happen. The moment he’s gone, the luck disappears.
What happens when they all need the dog’s magic at the same time? It’s up to Caylie, Lauren and Sabrina to decide once and for all: Is Phoo truly a lucky dog?
My Rating: 5/5 stars
Summary from Goodreads: When luck and the magic of friendship combine, anything is possible…
Seventh graders Caylie Jiang-Kahn, Lauren Blindell and Sabrina Robinson are making a movie about their friendship when a dirty stray dog shows up and ruins the day. In frustration, Lauren mutters, “Oh phooey,” which leads to the girls naming the dog “Phoo.”
When Phoo is caught and taken to the animal shelter, the girls agree to foster him until he can be adopted. They immediately notice something strange. Every time the dog is around, lucky things seem to happen. The moment he’s gone, the luck disappears.
What happens when they all need the dog’s magic at the same time? It’s up to Caylie, Lauren and Sabrina to decide once and for all: Is Phoo truly a lucky dog?
MY TAKE
Lucky Phoo was a really adorable story that is sure to be a hit with middle school girls. I usually try to post some positives and some negatives about every book that I review, but I honestly can't think of any real negatives when it came to this book (without really stretching it - um, boys probably won't like the book that much? It's not written for boys, so that doesn't seem like a valid point). So, instead I'll just list the positives!
**Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own***
Find the book on Amazon here.
This is a book of my heart. When I partnered with my friend Rhody Cohon to work on LUCKY PHOO we fell in love with the idea and the characters. Three girls, a magical dog, fashion, movies, and romance – what wasn’t to love.
The characters were kids we knew. The complexities of their lives felt familiar. This cute little dog comes in and seems to make everything better for a while. Who wouldn’t want a little Phoo?
I’ve been published for more than ten years and have been on the New York Best Seller List twice, but always wanted to reach out to the electronic market and to work with a smaller publishing house. When LUCKY PHOO was finished, I knew it was the perfect book to use to explore this frontier.
Although the book is available in paperback, I am really hoping to attract young readers to it as an eBook. The electronic market is exciting and it’s my hope that this book will break barriers for younger readers who are just starting to find eBooks. The 7-11 market is a tough one for electronic reading and I was warned before I started this venture that it would be an uphill climb, so I did a little research. I asked my friends if their kids were reading electronically – like my daughter. The answer was a resounding “Yes” and gave me the motivation to press through with my plans for the book.
I really love this story. It’s fun and filled with adventure, friendship, and a touch of magic. I hope the tweens in your life enjoy it too.
The book is on sale for 0.99 cents for the month of August.
Find out more at www.staciadeutsch.com.
Or www.luckyphoo.com.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
What I loved:
- The family dynamics. All three girls have some troublesome family dynamics that they have to work through. Caylie's parents are divorced and things are often tense between them, Lauren's mother has cancer and Sabrina's dad is almost completely focused on his daughters' budding tennis careers (which Sabrina isn't 100% sure that she even wants). I love that the book showed how these girls all have difficulties, but Deutsch & Cohon didn't portray any of the parents as mean caricatures (or as super-sweet, understanding parents who don't show their children anything but constant love). These families felt real and I think that kids will relate to them and to the issues that the girls are having. The book tackled real issues without getting dark or sappy. A real treat!
- True friendship. I loved that the girls learned the meaning of true friendship during the course of the book. At one point in the book, all three girls have determined that Phoo must be lucky and they each decide that they must have Phoo with them in order for good things to happen to them. They end up arguing over who gets to keep Phoo on a particular weekend and almost lose their friendship over it. I loved that they learned to band together in the end and that friendship wins out! (Oh, there actually was a small negative here as well for me - I wished that there had been a message about the fact that the girls didn't need Phoo for luck and for things to turn out positively in their lives, but that actually isn't the way the books ends up - that was just my own personal preference, though and I don't really feel like I can take away even a half star for it).
- The fun videos. The girls are trying to make a movie about their friendship. Sabrina is a budding filmmaker who edits their movie blooper into a crazy movie clip and posts it up on the internet. Immediately, it goes viral and the girls start to feel famous. I loved all of the movie making in the book because it felt real - like something that three middle school girls would really love to do. The clip that Sabrina puts together is described in hilarious detail too!
- Phoo. Such a cute puppy! Your middle school girls will be in love!
**Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own***
Find the book on Amazon here.
Guest Post
Thank you so much for hosting me on your blog.This is a book of my heart. When I partnered with my friend Rhody Cohon to work on LUCKY PHOO we fell in love with the idea and the characters. Three girls, a magical dog, fashion, movies, and romance – what wasn’t to love.
The characters were kids we knew. The complexities of their lives felt familiar. This cute little dog comes in and seems to make everything better for a while. Who wouldn’t want a little Phoo?
I’ve been published for more than ten years and have been on the New York Best Seller List twice, but always wanted to reach out to the electronic market and to work with a smaller publishing house. When LUCKY PHOO was finished, I knew it was the perfect book to use to explore this frontier.
Although the book is available in paperback, I am really hoping to attract young readers to it as an eBook. The electronic market is exciting and it’s my hope that this book will break barriers for younger readers who are just starting to find eBooks. The 7-11 market is a tough one for electronic reading and I was warned before I started this venture that it would be an uphill climb, so I did a little research. I asked my friends if their kids were reading electronically – like my daughter. The answer was a resounding “Yes” and gave me the motivation to press through with my plans for the book.
I really love this story. It’s fun and filled with adventure, friendship, and a touch of magic. I hope the tweens in your life enjoy it too.
The book is on sale for 0.99 cents for the month of August.
Find out more at www.staciadeutsch.com.
Or www.luckyphoo.com.
Find the book on Amazon here.
About the New York Times Best Selling Authors:
Rhody Cohon wishes
she could adopt a million pets! Until her house is big enough she'll pamper the
few she has and help others find the perfect home.
Find Rhody at www.rhodycohon.com.
Stacia Deutsch sits
at the keyboard crafting stories all day and then, plays with her own crazy,
lucky, dog at night. She and her three kids live in Southern California.
You
can visit Stacia at www.staciadeutsch.com
or on twitter at @staciadeutsch.
Website: www.staciadeutsch.com, www.rhodycohon.com
Twitter:
@staciadeutsch
Facebook: www.facebook.com/staciadeutsch or www.facebook.com/luckyphoo
to post your own pet photos and videos
Giveaway
This book sounds perfect for little girls. It has so many positive examples they can learn from. Thanks for sharing it, Nicole!
ReplyDeleteLucky Phoo, by Stacia Deutsch & Rhody Cohon, sounds like a fun book for girls to read and follow the story of friendship between Caylie, Lauren and Sabrina, and Phoo the dog from the animal shelter, I have a couple of granddaughters who would love to read this book
ReplyDeleteSounds like a cute book!
ReplyDelete