The Luck of the Buttons

by Anne Ylvisaker

Overview

In Iowa circa 1929, spunky twelve-year-old Tugs vows to turn her family’s luck around, with the help of a Brownie camera and a small-town mystery.
(Ages 8-12)

Tugs Esther Button was born to a luckless family. Buttons don’t presume to be singers or dancers. They aren’t athletes or artists, good listeners, or model citizens. The one time a Button ever made the late Goodhue Gazette - before Harvey Moore came along with his talk of launching a new paper - was when Great Grandaddy Ike accidentally set Town Hall ablaze. Tomboy Tugs looks at her hapless family and sees her own reflection looking back until she befriends popular Aggie Millhouse, wins a new camera in the Independence Day raffle, and stumbles into a mystery only she can solve. Suddenly this is a summer of change - and by its end, being a Button may just turn out to be what one clumsy, funny, spirited, and very observant young heroine decides to make of it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763654610
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/12/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	730L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Anne Ylvisaker is the author of Dear Papa, which Booklist named a Top Ten Youth First Novel, and Little Klein, a Book Sense pick and winner of numerous awards. Formerly of Iowa and Minnesota, Anne Ylvisaker now lives in California.

I learned to read on a Wednesday. I was in first grade and my friends and I were working through our early reader with Mrs. Covart. I liked the orderly look of words on the page but just mouthed along with the other kids because to me, words looked like squiggles on a page. Then one day after calendar time, we opened our books and read aloud together as usual, running our fingers under the words, and the word father popped out at me. I looked at the word and it connected with a picture in my head. Then other words made the pictures keep rolling: mother, dog, brother, sister, house. I was a reader.

Soon after, my family took a road trip and my mother gave each of us kids a notebook to keep us busy in the back seat. I recorded details from each part of the trip — mostly how far we drove and what everyone ate. We sent postcards to grandparents, describing where we were and what we saw. I was a writer.

Reading and writing are still two of my favorite activities. And stories to me are still about pictures. I pore over old photographs when I’m coming up with ideas, and I keep a wall of photographs and art postcards in my office while I’m working on a story. Pictures help me imagine characters and settings.

A while back I was looking at an old family photograph of a group of people sitting on a rickety porch with chickens running around at their feet. Who was standing behind the camera, I wondered, and what prompted them to take a picture of that scene? A spunky girl named Tugs Button showed up in my imagination, ready to tell the tale of her unlucky family and what she aimed to make of her summer, and The Luck of the Buttons was launched.

Three Things You Might Not Know About Me:

1. My first favorite book was Pickle Chiffon Pie by Jolly Roger Bradfield.

2. Each of my novels got their start because I made a mistake.

3. I love real mail. I try to send a letter or postcard every day.

Editorial Reviews

The tale has a whiff of nostalgia (the Brownie box camera, “dagnabit”), but the good old days are balanced by the strongly realized, immediate characters and the delicacy and originality of the writing
—Horn Book

An increasingly suspenseful tale revolving around a dapper, silver-tongued newcomer with plans for starting a newspaper with citizens' money (think The Music Man).
—Publisher's Weekly

The main message here is uncomplicated, but important—with a little faith in ourselves and a willingness to take some risks, anything is possible
—Kirkus Reveiws

Ylvisaker’s lively writing style and appealing characters will charm readers.
—Booklist

Subtle humor, a clever narrative style, and an endearing heroine. Details of photography of the time period add interest, and readers who enjoy a good story with only the mildest of sinister overtones will find this one appealing.
—School Library Journal

Tugs is nothing but good luck for young readers, and they’ll appreciate her role in this perceptive exploration of identity.
—Bulletin of the Center of Children's Books

A heartwarming story about a sensitive girl who exhibits innovation, ingenuity, and creativity.
—Library Media Connection

Combines mystery with unusual characters, including even a well known town cat.
—Chicago Tribune

Ylvisaker’s prose reads like poetry as she creates beautiful images that never feel contrived or self-conscious.
—Star Tribune

Books like THE LUCK OF THE BUTTONS by Anne Ylvisaker are some of the best in the biz. A svelte little novel that's chock full of plum, pluck, and vinegar, Ylvisaker gives us a heroine you can believe in but never pity....Hand this one over to the kid that wants a good story with humor and spice and a family that's practically cursed itself. It'll stick in your brain long after you've read it, this one, and you'll be glad that it's in there.
—A Fuse 8 Production (SLJ blog)

From the Publisher

Tugs Button is one observant and determined 12-year-old. When the summer of 1929 takes a new turn with the arrival of a stranger in Goodhue, Iowa, it’s Tugs who persists in discovering what Mr. Moore is all about. As she collects information, she’s aided by loyal cousin Ned and surprisingly unsnobbish Aggie Milhouse. Laura Hamilton’s narration makes the quirky Button family and the citizens of Goodhue shine. There are many Button relations, and each has a distinctive voice; notable are perky, high-pitched Granny, who wonders how to “drive one of these dang things [a car],” and bossy, shrill Aunt Mina. As Tugs, Hamilton blurts out her ideas and slows or abruptly stops as Tugs thinks about what she’s said. As the slick Mr. Moore, Hamilton further enlivens his multiple skills and schemes. A.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

JULY 2011 - AudioFile

Set in Iowa in 1929, this offbeat tale features plucky, twelve-year-old Tugs Button, who has a meaningful relationship with pie. The Button clan bakes and serves it up whenever there is trouble in the ranks, from accidents to crop failures to illnesses to spousal friction. Poor Tugs has eaten a lot of pie in her life. It seems the Buttons just don't have any luck. And judging by her buck teeth and her clumsiness, social and otherwise, Tugs is most definitely a Button. Not surprisingly, everyone—not least of all Tugs herself—is fit to be tied when she wins two blue ribbons and a Brownie camera at the town's Independence Day celebration. And they are further stunned by the mystery she solves with her camera, some good instincts and a little luck. A bit slow-going at first, but if readers persevere, they will warm up to Tugs and enjoy getting to know the people in her circle, including her unlikely, primly-dressed friend Aggie Millhouse, her Granddaddy Ike who gambles his false teeth away and back again, and twins Elmira and Eldora, photograph fanatics and owners of Leopold, a cat as big as a raccoon, who frequents the local library. The main message here is uncomplicated, but important—with a little faith in ourselves and a willingness to take some risks, anything is possible, even a lucky Button. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews