This is a fantastically written story about a girl who gets in a car crash and navigates close deaths, bed-riddance, social hardship, and immigration. I would recommend this for my class because it helps to bring beautiful culture and complex perspective.

This book follows the life of Ruthie and her family after immigrating from Cuba. As Ruthie's English progresses, she and her new friend Ramu are promoted up into the normal 5th-grade class. After her father gets a new car, they get in a car accident caused by a boy's reckless driving. Ruthie breaks her leg and is put in a full-body cast for 4 months. Her best friend Ramu sneaks over to visit her and they talk about the normal 5th-grade class. A bit later, a tragic accident happens and Ramu's little brother Avik falls out of their apartment window. Ramu and his family mourn and move back to India. Ruthie goes back to the doctor and is put in another full-body cast for four more months. Ruthie meets Chicho, the new neighbor who now lives in Ramu's old apartment. Chicho teaches Ruthie how to paint while she is in her cast and she finds a new joy in art. Ruthie gets her full body cast off but is still on bed rest with a cast only on her broken leg. Her birthday passes and she recognizes that those who had died in the car accident would never have another birthday and wishes for another year of living. Ruthie later gets her cast off and is told she can walk with crutches but she is too scared. Nurses come to the house to teach her how to walk and she is scared. One nurse is able to get her out of bed and has her practice the stairs. Later, she gets her able to go up and down five steps and takes her outside on her own for the first time. Ruthie sees her old friend Danelle. Danelle helps Ruthie as she transitions back into school with the crutches and shares how scared she was to visit Ruthie. They become better friends and Ruthie learns how to walk again. Ruthie is able to stay in contact with Ramu through writing letters to one another. This would be a good book for 5th or 6th graders as a read-out-loud to teach about dialogue and storytelling. It could also work well in a lesson on perspective.

This book is about a girl named Ruthie adjusting to immigration, starting a new school and just navigating life after being in a car accident that left her in a body cast for a year. This book is really good at showing resilience. This book is targeted towards intermediate grade levels. ( )

I have to admit, I didn't love this book -- it's just so painfully earnest that it dragged, and it's really quite depressing -- from the casual family verbal abuse, to the sudden tragedies, to the sexist messages and mother's powerlessness and anger, and that's before you start to try and comprehend a child being confined to her bed for a year to try and recover from a broken leg.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a first person, based on a true story, immigrant account of growing up Cuban and Jewish in New York City in the 1950s, this is excellent. And honestly, I think if I'd been reading it as a YA book, or even as an adult memoir, I would have loved it. I have a really hard time with it as a children's book -- there's just too much going on, and Ruthie's voice is sometimes confusing -- she has such compassion for where her parents are at (isolated, frustrated, confined) even when their behavior is difficult or abusive. I love her friends (Chicho, Ramu, even Danielle) and I love that she develops as an artist and a writer during her confinement. A lot of beauty here, and a lot of sorrow. ( )

Lucky Broken Girl tells the story of Ruthie, a fifth grader who was in a devastating car accident with her family that resulted in a badly broken leg. Most of her story takes place in her bedroom, where she is bedridden as she recovers from her injury, and we get to see the importance of family and friends as they get her through one of the hardest times of her life. This book does an excellent job at illustrating the culture of an immigrant family from Cuba, and what the life and discrimination of an immigrant family in the 1960s would be like. This book would be appropriate for intermediate to middle level readers. ( )