Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Ruby and Bubbles by Rosie Winstead

Ruby and Bubbles by Rosie Winstead follows the story of Ruby and her best friend bubbles, who happens to be a bird. Although their friendship is not traditional, the story is lighthearted and fun. It was from the new section of the curriculum lab, and once again, I was impressed.
Ruby is a little girl who likes to play pretend, and some of the ways in which she does this were what most children pretend when they are young. She is a mother of twins, TV talk show host, and not-so-nice neighbors (who happen to be two classmates of hers). Once day while she is pretending, she sees something absolutely perfect for her. A bird! Bubbles, the bird, quickly becomes Ruby's best friend. They do absolutely everything together. All things seem to be going great until she has a bird-day party for bubbles and the mean girls from her class make fun of her because Bubbles can't fly. This stems off into the core of the story. Ruby tries desperately to teach Bubbles to fly, but then she learns that some birds can't fly. Bubbles happens to be one of them. However, this does not make her love Bubbles any less, and the girls are eventually taught a lesson of their own.
The illustrations in this book were very good. The colors popped off the pages, and the descriptions were elaborate but not overwhelming. One of my favorite illustrations was one in which Ruby was reading a book, and the text is illustrated so readers can see what she sees (it's pretty funny). I think this was my favorite element of Ruby and Bubbles.
I enjoyed reading this book, and I think it would be an easy read for many students. Another aspect of the writing I really liked was how she referred to the characters. The mean girls were named Bratty Hatty and Mean Maureen. A nice boy was called Sweet Pete. I thought this would help young readers keep the characters straight in their minds and intertwined their attributes with their name which I think it a nice touch.
I would recommend this book to others, and it is one that I think most young girls (and some boys) would enjoy. I plan to bring this to my methods student, and I think it will go over really well with her. Once again, I was exposed to a new book, and it was great.

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