Charming little Ruby Raccoon returns for her third adventure for newly independent readers, illustrated with delightful watercolors of Ruby’s forest home and surrounding meadows. In this offering, Ruby tries hard to have an absolutely perfect day, inviting her friends to join her for breakfast and in playing outside. When each of Ruby’s friends in turn is too busy to share in her activities, she discovers that she can have a good time all by herself, and she spends the rest of her perfect day cultivating her own garden. Though Ruby’s previous adventures involving her group of assorted animal friends have a little more pizzazz than this quietly thoughtful tale, Ruby is still a charmer with a delightful world of her own, and the theme of satisfied solitude is an unusual one for this genre. (Easy reader. 5-7)
