The Higher Power of Lucky (2007)

Lucky, age ten, has lost her mother in a freak accident. Her father is missing and she is being cared for by her father's former girlfriend, Brigitte, in a tiny town at the edge of the California desert. Lucky has decided that running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), is the only choice she has. Lucky fears that Brigitte wants to return to France and abandon her in an orphanage where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, will not be allowed. She will lose her friends Miles and Lincoln and, just as bad, she won't be able to listen in on the twelve step anonymous programs where she learned about a Higher Power. Luck need her own luck and quickly!

Winner of the 2007 Newbery Medal