Three Times Lucky
Ratings14
Average rating4.2
Newbery honor winner, New York Times bestseller, Edgar Award Finalist, and E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor book. A hilarious Southern debut with the kind of characters you meet once in a lifetime Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home with the Colonel--a café owner with a forgotten past of his own--and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known. Full of wisdom, humor, and grit, this timeless yarn will melt the heart of even the sternest Yankee.
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3 primary booksMo & Dale Mysteries
Mo & Dale Mysteries is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2012 with contributions by Sheila Turnage.
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This is a fun middle grade mystery. I enjoyed following Mo and Dale around as they solved a crime and saved the day. A few times, there were frightening moments for Mo and Dale, and they had to handle stuff that many middle grade kids will not (operating a store, protecting people from abuse, etc.)
Along the way, Mo discovers that she might be adopted, but she doesn't need to search for her parents because she already has a home.
Setting: well done - I could feel small town North Carolina
Characters: varied & dimensional, children and adults
POV character: young, female, adopted
Topics: adoption, alcoholism, domestic abuse, robbery, murder, amnesia, economic inequality
Tone: strong, adventurous, curious
I love these kids! They are cool with being very much themselves. And the adults encourage them to be themselves as well. They all are facing hard things, but they don't run away from them. And there is a mystery!
Three Times Lucky:
Overall Rating - 6.7/10 or 3/5 stars
Characters - 6
The characters were certainly unique, but most of them weren't fleshed out enough and they seemed a bit one-dimensional. None of the characters seemed relatable which made the story more about the drama and plot instead :/
Atmosphere - 7
The town was interesting and as a reader I could understand what the town would feel like, but it lacked description of the roads and spaces between the main buildings mentioned. I give props for the map on the inside cover, but I wasn't feasibly going to flip back to look at it while reading.
Writing - 7
The writing flowed decently and didn't stray from the southern idiosyncrasies used as far as I could tell.
Plot - 7
It felt a bit jerky but as it was a plot-based story, it was fairly better than the characters.
Intrigue - 8
Intrigue was what mainly kept me going with this book. I wanted to know the outcome of the mystery and as much as the wacky characters went, they didn't stop me from continuing to see where it ended.
Logic - 6
Most of the story made sense but some of it was just nonsensical.
Enjoyment - 6
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, and I won't be continuing the series, but I still enjoyed it enough to finish it. :)
