Struck

By Deb Loughead

Claire’s life is in need of a major overhaul. She’s failing math, her depressed mother won’t get off the couch, and the boy of her dreams is dating her nemesis Lucy. Just as Claire is wishing, her life changes, and Claire has everything she thought she ever wanted. It doesn’t take long before Claire starts to worry that the cost of good fortune may be too high.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Oct 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781554692132

Deb Loughead

Deb Loughead is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults including Wildfire, Payback and Rise of the Zombie Scarecrows in the Orca Currents line. Her books have been translated into seven languages, and her award-winning poetry and adult fiction have appeared in a variety of Canadian publications. Deb has conducted workshops and held readings at schools, festivals and conferences across the country. She lives in Toronto.

Reviews for Struck

[jrlibrary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Claire wishes that some aspects of her life were different; she wished her secret crush, Eric, noticed her, she wished her mom had a job, she wished she could land the lead role in the school play etc. While on a grocery shopping errand for her mom, Claire finds a beautiful, undamaged umbrella in a trash can. When she leaves the store, she uses the umbrella because it's pouring, and gets hit by a brilliant flash of lightning. She survives the lightning strike and hurries home. Immediately the circumstances in her life seem to change and she can't help but attribute it to the lightning strike. The drama star at school hit her head and is in the hospital in a coma, her mom suddenly announces that she's going to try to get a job, and her secret crush takes a sudden intense interest in her. However, the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for" couldn't be less true in this case, and the life Claire is suddenly leading is not as wonderful as she thought it would be.This is an Orca Currents book, so it's not too long, and would be quite enjoyable and manageable for a reluctant reader or an ESL student.