Publication Date: 05th March 2024
Genre: Middle-Grade Historical Adventure
4 Stars
One Liner: Heartwarming
1912, Michigan
Lucy is an eleven-year-old spirited French-Ojibwe orphan sent to live on the tiny Harmony Island with the large Martins family. She misses her papa (a sailor) and hopes to find the legendary ruby necklace he wanted to find but couldn’t.
Living on an island is hard when Lucy is afraid of water). Moreover, adjusting to the new life with the Anishinaabe family, the lighthouse keepers, isn’t easy. But no one could say Lucy can’t handle hard.
If only things were a little easier. Maybe a bit of effort is exactly what’s needed.
The story comes in Lucy’s third-person POV.
My Thoughts:
A book with a lighthouse, a title with alliteration, and an intriguing premise- do I need more to grab this one? Of course not.
The book starts with Lucy eavesdropping on a conversation. We get a glimpse into her character and begin to understand her delicate position. The poor girl lost her parents and guardian and is now thrust into an unknown family, that too, a large one.
Lucy is an engaging MC. She is far from perfect and often switches to different personalities as a coping mechanism. She’s a Princess one moment, an Actress the next, and a Small Waif immediately afterward. These define her means of coping with the sudden changes in the situation and her inability to handle them without feeling overwhelmed. I love how this enriches her arc throughout the book.
While the ruby necklace is important, it is not the central plot. The main theme is about Lucy finding her place in the Martins family. It’s not easy for both parties, as we can clearly see. The Martins already have six children ranging from high school to pre-nursery. Inserting an eleven-year-old longing for a family is not a stress-free task.
The setting and the lighthouse descriptions are clear enough to visualize the place but not so elaborate that kids will lose interest. It helps that the island is super tiny (a smart move). There’s a map, which broke into a dozen pieces on my Kindle. Maybe it’ll look better in PDF on a computer screen. I wish we could see the drawing of the ruby necklace, too.
The Martins family, despite the large number, is easy to track. Everyone has a distinct personality, some rude, some sweet, some bored, but even they change as they get to know Lucy and accept her presence.
We are introduced to a few more characters who play minor but crucial roles in the plot’s progress.
There’s some adventure and one risky scene in the climax. It is essential to the plot and handled without feeling OTT.
The inclusion of Anishinaabemowin's words and Mrs. Martin’s determination to teach their native language to the children is so wonderful. I love it. As a pagan, I cannot stress enough the importance of this statement. Frame it, I say!
It may be fashionable these days to leave one’s heritage behind, but one day, you’ll regret not knowing the things your ancestors did.
There’s a glossary of Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) and French terms at the end, followed by acknowledgments. This helped understand the meanings of the words better, though most were explained within the story.
To summarize, The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry is a heartwarming, beautiful, and steady-paced book about a young girl facing her fears and finding a family to call her own. It’s also about grief, mourning, and being optimistic about life.
Thank you, NetGalley and Holiday House, for the eARC.
#NetGalley #TheLuminousLifeOfLucyLandry
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