Third grad­er Pen­ny Pos­ner believes in luck. She fills her room with lucky objects and her days with lucky rit­u­als. She hopes she is lucky enough to be cho­sen to blow the sho­far at her school’s Rosh Hashanah pic­nic. But while walk­ing to school with her anx­ious friend Mara, Pen­ny finds an unlucky pen­ny — heads down — and her luck runs out.

Bad things keep hap­pen­ing to Pen­ny: her seat gets moved to the back row, she gets in trou­ble with her teacher, and, in an attempt to reverse her bad for­tune, Pen­ny and Mara get in a fight. For­tu­nate­ly for Pen­ny, her wise moth­er coun­sels her that ​“luck is just a way of look­ing at the world,” and even though Pen­ny isn’t cho­sen to blow the sho­far, it turns out to be a lucky day in so many ways.

This chap­ter book for young read­ers ele­gant­ly weaves lessons about the sym­bols and rit­u­als asso­ci­at­ed with the Jew­ish New Year, like apple cake and tash­lich, into a sto­ry about for­ti­tude and friend­ship. Read­ers will relate to Penny’s opti­mism and Mara’s wor­ries. Pep­pered with live­ly pen-and-ink draw­ings, Lucky Pen­ny will appeal not only to kids who like read­ing inde­pen­dent­ly, but also to teach­ers and par­ents who are look­ing for sto­ries about Rosh Hashanah.