Love, Ruby Lavender

Love, Ruby Lavender was a fine example of realistic fiction.  The book opens with an article from the Aurora County News which sets up the first scene of Ruby and her grandmother, Miss Eula “liberating” chickens which is hilarious.  Throughout the course of the book, Ruby learns to cope with the death of her grandfather.  Ruby must also deal with her grandmother Eula going for a trip to Hawaii and find a way to deal with her enemy Melba Jane.  Both of these girls were dealing with a death in their family.  Ruby, the death of her grandfather and Melba, the death of her father.   These two characters remind me of Comfort and Declaration in Each Little Bird That Sings.  The book comes to a comforting end when Melba Jane and Lavender make their peace and Miss Eula returns.  The relationship between the chickens and Ruby grew even stronger because Ruby felt that was all she had left of her grandmother while she was away.   I did love the way Wiles puts Ruby’s sense of humor into her letter writing.  These letters are full of spirit and liveliness.  One criteria of realistic fiction is that the book “must embrace realistic characters, situations, and settings that reflect life in a believable way.”  Wow, this book had this characteristic.  This little town is Mississippi could have been any rural small town USA and Ruby could have definitely been any small girl that you may know.  This story was one that I could see taking place around here where we live.  The events thru out the story are believable; the death of a grandparent, having a town enemy, and the feeling of being left behind all of these events happen to ordinary people everyday.

I felt a relationship with Ruby while reading this book.  It reminded me of my childhood and when my grandfather died and how my grandmother reacted.  It was as though she somehow felt responsible for his death.  He was a truck driver and had some issues with his health, he had a heart attack while out on his last trip.  Maybe she felt like she should have not let him go, I am not sure.  Also, my Nanny was someone I had a special bond with.  I remember sitting on the front porch stringing and breaking beans with her and listening to the stories of her childhood.  I would not take one million dollars for those times with her.

I could see in a classroom using this book as a read a loud book or small group reading.  I think children second grade and up could relate to the content of this story.  Having the children break into small groups and discuss a character and take a deeper look into what they thought the character was feeling would be interesting.  The letters written back and forth between Eula and Ruby would be a great inspiration to some children to delve deeper into their writing.

I now want to read The Aurora County All Stars see if it follows the pattern of these two books and has young girls and their trials and tribulations of growing up.  I also am curious to see if there will be a death to deal with.  I enjoyed the two books by Deborah Wiles that we have read very much.