Patron, Susan. The Higher Power of Lucky

Lucky lives in the tiny desert town of Hard Pan, California, where she is being raised by her guardian Brigitte--her father's French first wife--after the death by electrocution of her mother. For fun, she listens in on 12-step meetings. When she thinks she finds evidence that Brigitte is abandoning her to return to France, she decides to run away.

There was something that made me nervous about the famous offending passage--not any of the words in it, but a certain tone of "Oh, isn't it adorable when small children don't know things." But, contextualized in the story, contextualized in terms of Lucky's love of science (she has a dog named H.M.S. Beagle!) and curiosity about the world around her, it makes perfect sense and doesn't feel cute or cloying, and I am relieved at the end when Lucky does find out what a scrotum is. There are various moments of adorableness, and moments of surprising tenderness. Astonishingly, the "Oh no! Based on too little evidence I will decide I am unloved!" plot, which I'd usually find unworthy of a Saturday-morning cartoon, makes perfect sense, and there's some subtle symbolism that I think works very well-- though I'll note that others found it distinctly unsubtle.

Also? Brigitte talks like a French person talks. This is not a small achievement.

"Then I drive and drive and drive"--Brigitte air-drove a car, her hands gripping a pretend steering wheel--"until there is no more people, only desert, a lot of desert! I am a little frightened because there is too much space everywhere, and I almost drive into a cow and her little veal..."

I don't know if it really is the year's most distinguished contribution to children's literature. But it very nearly sank without being noticed by hardly anyone, and I'm very glad that it got rescued from that fate. Even if we all never want to hear the word "scrotum" ever again.