Lucky's Lick

Anyone who reads my posts probably knows I care a lot about kids with special needs, so it's no surprise that I want to tell you about this book by Mary Esparza-Vela.  

Lucky's Lick is about Juanito, a boy who had been injured in an accident and became paraplegic. That means he was paralyzed from the waist down.

His friends still like him even though he can't participate in the things he used to do with them.
Juanito has an active imagination and loves superheroes.  But it's hard for him to keep a positive attitude when he must sit in a wheelchair instead of playing and have physical therapy every day.

Will he ever be able to walk again?

When Juanito gets a puppy for his birthday he names him Lucky. Like many dogs, Lucky is loving and cheers the boy up.

I don't want to spoil the book by telling you the rest of the plot so I'll stop here.

I hope lots of kids will read Lucky's Lick because it will help them sympathize with others who can't do everything they can do. Since the main character is Latino and his friends are of various ethnicities it may help kids accept people who are different from themselves in that way, too.

But the main reason kids should read it is just because it's a good book.