"Lucky Little Things"

Janice Erlbaum is the author of two books for tweens, Lucky Little Things, and Let Me Fix That For You (coming in 2019), the memoirs Girlbomb and Have You Found Her, and the novel for adults I, Liar.

Erlbaum applied the Page 69 Test to Lucky Little Things and reported the following:

From page 69:

“Who are you,” she demanded. It was a statement, not a question.

“I’m Emma,” I said nervously. “Macintyre.”

I wanted to get off the stage, out of the lights. Other people were waiting for their turn. I knew the mocking noises would start up again any second. Melanie just stared at me. I wasn’t sure if it was a good stare or a bad stare.

“That was incredible,” she said.

My new book, Lucky Little Things, is about a 13-year-old New Yorker named Emma who’s recently had a streak of bad things happen in her life, when she receives a mysterious note telling her that she’s going to have good luck for the next month. The mystery note doesn’t seem to be working at first – here on page 69, she has to audition for the spring play while reeling from her best friend’s betrayal, and she breaks down crying on stage. But her breakdown impresses the playwright, and Emma lands the lead role.

The whole book is about luck – what it is, how it works, and how you can have more of it in your life. Emma notices how the bad luck of crying onstage led to the good luck of getting the part she wanted, and she starts seeing more of these connections in her life, until she eventually realizes the secret behind the mystery: Luck is not a thing that happens to you. It’s everything that happens to you.

Visit Janice Erlbaum's website.

--Marshal Zeringue