The Theme Of Luck In Lucky Little Things

 Lucky Little Things is realistic fiction written by Janice Erlbaum . This story takes place in New York City and is about an eighth grade girl named Emma Macintyre. Her mom's friend (Aunt Jenny) died because of cancer and then, Emma gets an anonymous letter with no return address. The letter says to write down a list of 10 lucky things you want to happen. It also says “ One rule: Don't tell anybody! No human person must know about this letter, or it wont work.” That just makes it harder for her to find who wrote it because she can't ask around. As the things on her list start coming true and she starts to understand what is going on but still wonders who wrote this letter and why did they.

First, the main character of the book is Emma Macintyre, she is a thirteen year old girl in eighth grade. Emma lives in an apartment in New York City with her mom and her black and white dog Penguin. Her hobbies are volunteering at Waggie Tail dog adoption and drama club at school. She does not have many friends, the popular girls dont like her, and her best friend Savannah (Savvy) is hanging out with them. Sometimes the letter brought luck at first but then it wasn't so lucky like when Emma got twenty dollars in the letter she told people that she found twenty dollars but the popular girls said “Must be hard to be so poor that you think twenty dollars is like something you tell people about” Emma felt lucky she found it and now the money feels unlucky. Emma is going through a hard time because of Aunt Jenny's death and she's feeling bad about how her friendship has changed with Savvy.

Next, the theme of this book is, luck is all around you. Emma thought she was getting really lucky but really she was just noticing her luck better because of the letter. We don’t notice our luck when it's happening. When you find a penny you think you are getting lucky because of the myth but really you are just noticing the luck around you. Emma’s last letter said “When you think of yourself as lucky, you notice all good things in your life.” Emma realized when she got the role in the play it wasn't because of luck. She got the role because she killed it at the audition and was feeling lucky overall because of the list of the 10 things she wanted to happen.

Finally, a significant passage in the book is: “I couldn't catch my breath. My words come out in a stutter. P-penguin. . . a bone . . . he couldn't.. Mom couldn't understand me and started freaking out. Oh no! Oh, no, baby, not Penguin. No, he’s . . . There was a man. The nice lumberjack gently took the phone from my hand. Hi there. Your dog is fine. He was choking, but we managed to get the bone out of his throat. Your daughter is hugging him right now.” I love this passage because it is so kind that the man saved Emma's dog from choking to death. Emma is truly lucky that he came and helped her.