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RUBY STARR

Name: RUBY STARR
Author: Deborah Lytton
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4577-1

From the Ruby Starr series , Vol. 1

by Deborah Lytton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2017

A mostly amusing saga of primary-school friendships with a clever pro-reading subtext

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Ten-year-old Ruby Starr feels threatened when a new girl arrives in her fifth-grade class and turns everything upside down.

Ruby, a white girl with blonde, curly hair, is an ardent bibliophile who often imagines she’s a character in a book herself. Ruby’s happily ensconced in school with special girlfriends and the Unicorn Book Club she started when new kid Charlotte, also white, appears. Before Ruby realizes what’s happening, Charlotte’s invited to join the Unicorns and Ruby’s best friend seems “gaga” about the new arrival. When Charlotte eschews reading and suggests it would be fun to turn the book club into a drama club, an angry, hurt, and jealous Ruby asks Charlotte if she’s ever even read a book. Immediately regretting her words, Ruby turns to her fictional heroines for inspiration. After accidentally discovering the secret behind Charlotte’s dislike of books, Ruby eventually has a chance to redeem herself. Peppered with references to her favorite books, Ruby’s fresh, humorous, first-person, present-tense account of her fifth-grade traumas, her real and imaginary friendships, and her supportive family rings true. However, the text is frequently abruptly interrupted by Ruby’s dramatic daydreams complete with (uncredited) cartoon illustrations—a distracting and unsuccessful device. Ruby’s world is a largely white one.

A mostly amusing saga of primary-school friendships with a clever pro-reading subtext . (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4926-4577-1

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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GHOSTS

by Raina Telgemeier ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2016

Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...

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Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.

Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.

Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016

Categories:

GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
FACING FEELINGS
by Raina Telgemeier ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier

- BOOK REVIEW
THE CARTOONISTS CLUB
by Raina Telgemeier & Scott McCloud ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier & Scott McCloud ; color by Beniam C. Hollman

- BOOK REVIEW
GUTS
by Raina Telgemeier ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier

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TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

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At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.

Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)