I couldn’t resist this book when I saw the cover. It is not a genre I usually review, Children’s Mid-Grade, but Phoo was just so cute I couldn’t resist him. How can you look him in the eye and say no. LOL. What a fun cover!
Lucky Phoo
Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon
Genre: Children’s Mid Grade
Publisher: Imajin Books
Date of Publication: August 1, 2013
Number of pages: 109
Word Count: 43,000
Cover Artist: Ryan Doan
imajinbooks.com, amazon.com, luckyphoo.com and www.staciadeutsch.com
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Seventh grade best friends, Caylie Jiang-Kahn, Lauren Blindell, and Sabrina Robinson have busy middle school lives.
Sabrina wants to make a movie about their friendship, but a stray dog shows up and ruins the day. In frustration, Lauren curses, “Oh Phooey.” The name sticks. The crazy mutt will forever be named Phoo.
Sabrina pieces together bits of the footage she shot. She highlights Phoo’s silly antics and puts the video up on a movie contest website.
The video goes viral and suddenly, Lauren, Caylie, and Sabrina are celebrities at school. When a volunteer at the dog shelter sees the film, she assumes the dog belongs to the girls and calls them to come collect Phoo.
The girls arrange to take turns caring for Phoo until he can be adopted.
While sharing Phoo, Caylie, Sabrina and Lauren begin to notice that if the dog is around, lucky things seem to happen. The moment he’s gone…the luck disappears.
When they all need the dog’s magic at the same time, it’s up to the girls to decide once and for all: Is Phoo truly a lucky dog?
REVIEW BLURBS FOR LUCKY PHOO
“With punchy dialogue and a fast moving pace, LUCKY PHOO takes readers on a wild adventure as three friends try to share fostering duties of a lovable stray dog.” —Marianne Mitchell, author of FIREBUG
“Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon are two very best friends who write books together, which is very lucky for their readers. You’ll want to share LUCKY PHOO with all your friends, too!” —Jennifer J. Stewart, author of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF A THIRD WORLD KIND, Connecticut Nutmeg Book Award List; Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award List; Arizona Grand Canyon Reader Award List
“LUCKY PHOO is a great story about friendship, love and responsibility–Phoo, the lucky dog who wanders into Sabrina’s, Caylie’s and Lauren’s world is indeed lucky–although maybe not as lucky as these girls whose life he changes.” —Terry Trueman, Printz Honor Author of STUCK IN NEUTRAL
“Okay, full disclosure: I LOVE good, strong, dog stories–Lucky Phoo is precisely one of those!” —Terry Trueman, Printz Honor Author of STUCK IN NEUTRAL
EXCERPT
Mrs. Salinas was ready to go. “So if you girls are sure you can’t take him any longer, I’ll just head on over to the van―” She took a few steps forward then turned back to the girls. “You’re sure you can’t foster him any longer?”
“I can’t,” Sabrina said, her voice tight and sad.
“Not me,” Lauren confirmed.
“I might be able to squeeze out another weekend,” Caylie said, “but we’d be back here on Monday.”
“Right,” Mrs. Salinas said. “And at least this way he has a chance of getting adopted in Fresno.”
She took a few more steps towards the van. The rain, to Lauren, seemed to be coming down harder. The drops blended in with her tears now. And looking at Caylie and Sabrina, Lauren couldn’t tell, but was pretty sure they were crying, too.
Mrs. Salina’s stopped one more time, just at the edge of the parking lot. “It was great having him,” she said. “Wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Lauren agreed. “Great.”
“We had fun,” Caylie said.
“Fun,” Sabrina repeated the word. “Yeah. We had a good time.”
Mrs. Salinas nodded. “I thought so.” She looked down at the dog, then back at the girls. “Tell me,” she said, her voice soft, drippy like the rain. “Weren’t things better when Phoo was around?”
The remark caught Lauren off-guard. What was Mrs. Salinas talking about?
“I think she’s right,” Lauren said, turning to Caylie and Sabrina. “Things have been going better than usual for me lately.”
“You don’t think he might have some kind of powers?” Sabrina looked over at Mrs. Salinas who was now at the van, loading Phoo inside.
“Well,” Caylie said, considering.
“I think maybe,” Lauren said tentatively. “I saw this show about luck and how―” Lauren stopped herself mid-sentence when she saw Mrs. Salinas push Phoo into an empty carrying cage. His voice joined the choir of barking dogs and was the loudest of them all.
In a sudden move, the girls rushed forward to stop the truck, shouting together, “Mrs. Salinas! Wait!”
MY REVIEW of Lucky Phoo by Rhody Cohon and Stacia Deutsch
Sabrina was directing Caylie and Lauren in her movie – VBF’s (very best friends).
“CUT,” Sabrina yells.
The dirty, mangy looking dog walked into view, peed on a tree, then made himself cozy right in the middle of her shot.
Her three minute movie went viral.
5 STARS – Would Buy It For Them (lol)
The book is all about three best friends and the trials and tribulations of growing up.
I am a dog lover, so when I saw the cute cover, I couldn’t resist. Sometimes a book outside my usual genres is a nice change of pace. This book has all the elements of a great read-characters that are realistic, a storyline that is believable and descriptions and details that make me able to visualize things as they are happening. Plenty of humor to make this a very fun read.
The authors do a great job of describing the growing pains of a tween. How mean and cruel twelve year olds can be and how things can seem like the end of the world.
But the authors also show us how creative children are and how they believe their dreams can come true, believe nothing is impossible.
Phoo – is he their lucky charm? Everything seems better when he is around. It seems like he was talking to them and trying to help them.
Fifi – foo foo dog in a bag.
Sabrina – her dad was grooming her to be a world champ tennis player.
Lauren – her mother has cancer – the C word. When most people hear that they think it is a death sentence. As scary as that is for adults, imagine how terrifying it can be for a child.
Caylie – needs a job. Her parents are divorced and she is shuttled back and forth. .
Quotes
“Oh Phooey on you, little picnic party pooper!”
“So long to you, Phoo! That name fits hims perfectly.”
“Everybody needs a little phoo.” Fu means luck in Chinese.
The tour and author provided an Arc for review.
ABOUT THE 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.
Stacia’s Website / Rhody’s Website / Stacia’s Blog / Stacia’s Twitter
Author Facebook Page / Post your pet photos and videos Facebook Page
Stacia’s LinkedIn / Stacia’s Goodreads / Stacia’s Amazon Author Page
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