Almost Paradise

by Corabel Shofner

Twelve-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson’s life turns upside down the day her mother’s boyfriend holds up a convenience store, and her mother is wrongly imprisoned for assisting with the crime. Ruby and her pet pig, Bunny, find their way to her estranged Aunt Eleanor's home. Aunt Eleanor is a nun who lives on a peach orchard called Paradise, and had turned away from their family long ago. With a little patience, she and Ruby begin to get along―but Eleanor has secrets of her own, secrets that might mean more hard times for Ruby.

Ruby believes that she's the only one who can find a way to help heal her loved ones, save her mother, and bring her family back together again. But being in a family means that everyone has to work together to support each other, and being home doesn't always mean going back to where you came from.

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Childrens, Juvenile, Adventure, Animals, Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 25, 2017

About the author

http://corabelshofner.com/about/

Reviews

[Corabel Shofner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, it's me so I'm partial.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Main character Ruby is absolutely wonderful! Her clear-eyed assessments (which were often quite funny) of the people around her, as well as her maturity totally make this book. Almost Paradise was funny, emotional and deep, and had me tearing up a little by the end. What a great and pleasant surprise this book turned out to be.

[Wendy MacKnight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have given my whole heart to Ruby Clyde and she will forever have a piece of my heart. What an amazing book. Ruby's life has been anything but easy, but a series of awful events that might've taken out a lesser mortal are no match for the indomitable spirit that is Ruby. This book is a gem, a golden nugget of a story. Throw in some Charles Dickens and a pig named Bunny and you have a miracle of a story.

[Linda Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had the wonderful opportunity to actually spend time with the author, Corabel Shofner, which made reading Almost Paradise even more special. Corabel is so full of life that it's contagious. And that vibrancy for life spills right into her writing. Almost Paradise is bursting with life, wisdom, and hope. Anyone who loves Kate Dicamillo's Opal Buloni in Because of Winn Dixie or Sheila Turnage's Miss Moses LoBeau in Three Times Lucky will also love Corabel Shofner's Miss Ruby Clyde Henderson in Almost Paradise.

If you have the opportunity, get out and meet this author when she goes on tour after the book releases. I promise you that you won't regret it.

[Joanne O'Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Attention, readers! Do you love stories with heart and hilarity? Stories with such voice, such depth that they make an indelible impression on you, in the vein of BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE? Then you absolutely *must* read ALMOST PARADISE. Ruby Clyde has to be the most memorable, the most lovable character I have read in a long time. She drives this uproariously funny and heartbreaking book, but she's also surrounded by characters, storylines and images that will steal your heart. I was laughing out loud throughout the book, but my heartstrings never stopped humming. Newbury committee- take note!

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite Juvenile Fiction books of 2017. You cannot help but fall in love with Ruby Clyde Henderson. She is a treasure and so is her story. She takes one setback after another and still manages to find "pieces of love" in all the people around her. Would make a fantastic classroom readaloud. Highly recommended!

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great story about being handed some crappy life cards, but making the best of those cards being dealt and turning them into something really powerful and life changing. So enjoyed this ARC!

[Tiffany Hough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. A bonus: I’ve never read a children’s book where the characters wind up in downtown Hot Springs. I’ll be purchasing this one.

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me laughing and crying! A very touching story about twelve-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson, a girl who could talk the ears off a horse. When her mother is wrongly jailed for a crime her boyfriend committed, Ruby finds her way to her mysterious aunt's place. Once there, she finds herself at home, and discovers secrets that complicate her life even further.

I love this book and the characters! A wonderful debut!

[Heather Bergeron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruby Clyde is a lovable tomboy who learns and consequently teaches us that love, and often trust, comes in little pieces. She reads Dickens and identifies with Oliver Twist. She loves using fun vocabulary words she has learned and learning new words. In the end, her trust and hope pay off for her!

[Ruth Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has voice and heart by the bucketload. I defy anyone not to fall completely for Ruby Clyde.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruby Clyde stole my heart from the first line: I woke up alone in the backseat of the Catfish's car. Debut author Shofner's story shines with humor and Southern heart. Ruby is honest to a fault but tender-hearted, too. She aims to be a nurse and believes she can heal others with her hands. If only she could fix her life. She doesn't want to be an orphan and winds up at Paradise Ranch, a nunnery and home of Sister Eleanor, her estranged aunt. But as good stories go, things don't stay peaceful, even in paradise. ALMOST PARADISE is 100% a delight whose ending is just right.

[Laura Shovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruby Clyde's voice had my heart from page one. This contemporary middle grade feels timeless. It's filled with quirky, wonderful characters: Sister Eleanor, Bunny the Pig, and all of the adults who step in to be Ruby's makeshift family.

[Bridget Hodder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! I can't say enough about this book, but I'm going to try! Review to come.

[Ruth Lehrer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to get a free ARC of this summer 2017 middle grade book. ALMOST PARADISE by Corabel Shofner is a wonderful find. The tough girl protagonist, Ruby Clyde, is funny and smart. Along with her pet pig, Bunny, Ruby tells us her engaging family story. We trust her voice so much that even slightly far-fetched events are totally believable. Shofner conveys Ruby’s voice with such authenticity that I’m totally certain I would recognize Ruby Clyde if I saw her in the local diner. Hop to and pre-order this charming middle grade novel!

[Virginia McGee Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first clue that Almost Paradise would qualify for a good Southern yarn came when I saw the author’s name, Corabel Shofner, on the Net Galley offering for an advance reading copy. She did, indeed, grow up in the Mississippi Delta with a long line of Southern ancestors. The second clue came in Corabel’s workshop at the Faye B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival when she recounted growing up among eccentric relatives. By this time, I had her book downloaded on my Kindle ready to read when it came up in the queue.

It’s a good thing I didn’t know just how entertaining it would be or my queue would have been completely messed up. There are problems aplenty for protagonist Ruby Clyde (also a Southern name) – a father who died before she was born, a mean grandmother, an estranged aunt. And these are before her mother’s boyfriend takes her and her mother on a trip where they steal/rescue a pig from a show and the boyfriend commits armed robbery. When her mother is falsely accused of abetting the crime and is put in jail, Ruby Clyde must rely on others to help her find the estranged aunt who turns out to have secrets of her own.

Spunk and humor lace into Ruby Clyde’s search for home and vindication for her mother. Those who do her harm are balanced by others who genuinely care for her. Even as the author brings rescuers into Ruby Clyde’s life, she pokes fun at the icons of Southern culture. “Mr. Gaylord Lewis had gone to court and told the judge he would watch after my mother until trial. And since Mr. Lewis was so big and important with football and money and God, the judge couldn’t say no.”

I’ll miss Ruby Clyde now that I’ve closed the last page of the book. It’s available for purchase on July 25.

I would suggest pairing this book written by a descendant of Delta landowners with Midnight Without a Moon, written by a descendant of sharecroppers, that I reviewed on June 16. The authors met in a coincidence as their books came out and have become friends.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Corabel’s charming middle-grade debut, ALMOST PARADISE, 12-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson’s world is turned upside down after her mother is wrongly imprisoned after a convenience-store robbery. With her pet pig, Bunny, in tow, Ruby makes her way to her aunt Eleanor’s peach orchard, Paradise Ranch, where she learns more about her aunt—and about the meaning of family—than she ever expected. A beautifully written gem of a novel! Highly recommended.

[Jenn Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

How could any reader of this book not be charmed by Ruby Clyde? The delightful narrator of this debut novel had me from page one. I would follow her anywhere. ALMOST PARADISE is full of heart and Southern charm. A truly delightful exploration of what constitutes a family, forgiveness, and pieces of love.

[Sheralee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some giveaways end up being a chore to read. This one was thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end. A very quick read , about two days tops. Ruby is lovable right from the beginning. A wonderful story about how, whatever kind of family you have can pull together in a crisis. Loved the story and it is well written.

[Lois Sepahban · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky to read an ARC of ALMOST PARADISE.

I completely loved this book--wonderful characters, perfect blend of sadness and humor, compelling story.

Highly recommend for fans of middle grade fiction.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ruby Clyde Henderson doesn't really want to spend her birthday traveling by car to an unknown destination with her mom, Babe, and Babe's obnoxious boyfriend, Carl, known as the Catfish. But what the Catfish says goes, so Ruby Clyde is along for the ride, like it or not. Unfortunately, when they are stopped at a gas station, the Catfish commits armed robbery and both he and Babe are taken into custody. The only relative who can possibly take in Ruby Clyde (and her newly acquired pig, Bunny, who was also stolen by Carl) is her mother's twin sister, Eleanor, about whose existence Ruby has just learned for the first time. Eleanor is an Episcopalian nun who lives on a ranch called Paradise and is facing a potentially deadly cancer diagnosis, but despite living as a solitary and having her own problems, she agrees to help Ruby Clyde, and over time, the two grow close enough to begin healing the rifts in their family.

I included this title on my list of most anticipated 2017 books, and the author was kind enough to supply me with a digital ARC from NetGalley. My primary interest in the story was the fact that it involves religion, since I am always curious to see how middle grade novels handle issues of faith. Since I am Catholic, not Episcopalian, I can't say much about how accurately or inaccurately the story treats this particular denomination (which it describes as a "pretty loosey-goosey, do-whatever-you-want kind of church"), but I still feel qualified to comment on how religion is treated overall.

I think, on the whole, the book is respectful of belief in God. Ruby Clyde has some unusual thoughts about Biblical teaching - e.g., she feels that Mary nagged Jesus into changing water into wine at the Wedding at Cana because "she just wanted wine" and that "Adam was a wuss" because "God made him weak" - but I never got the impression that these were anything more than a child's immature (and funny) reflections on pieces of scripture she doesn't yet fully understand. (In that sense, Ruby reminded me a lot of Lucky from The Higher Power of Lucky, who doesn't quite know what a higher power is, but still wants to find one.) Certainly kids who know their Bible stories will understand Ruby's references in these passages and understand that her interpretations are a little off the beaten path. I appreciated that these references were in the book at all, as Biblical allusions are not all that common in mainstream kids' books.

I also appreciated the fact that Sister Eleanor makes it clear that she wears her habit by choice. I think it is a common misconception in our secular culture that Christianity oppresses women religious (and women in general) by forcing them to do things they do not want to do. In fact, though, women who answer a calling to become nuns, do so of their own free will, and though they may take vows that thereafter require them to do certain things or dress a certain way, they fulfill these vows each day by choice. It was nice to see this understood and explicitly stated in a casual way.

The book does mention Catholicism in one scene, and obviously that caught my attention. When the Catfish first hears of Sister Eleanor, he becomes agitated and calls out to Babe and Ruby Clyde, "You Catholic?!" I will confess that this rubbed me the wrong way a little bit at first, since his tone makes it sound like being Catholic is about the worst thing that can happen to a person. But as I read Ruby's explanation of her grandmother's distrust for Catholics, and her quick summary of the development of the Anglican church because of Henry VIII, I realized that the only anti-Catholic sentiments in the book are associated with villains of the story, and that the characters who have the reader's sympathy remain either neutral or silent about the Catholic church. I understand the need for the author to mention it, both as a means of delivering historical information about the Episcopal church and as a means of explaining that Eleanor is not a Catholic nun, as many readers might otherwise rightfully assume. Part of me wished for just one more sentence to clarify that Catholicism isn't inherently bad just because some people feel it is, but I also tend to resent it when authors over-explain themselves so an extra sentence might just have been overkill. Ultimately, I don't think the book espouses an anti-Catholic worldview or that it would sway a young reader with no prior exposure to the Church to automatically condemn it. I do expect Catholic kids might not like the Catfish too much, but no one is meant to like him anyway, so they would not be alone in that feeling.

Religion aside, I do have to admit that this book was not really my cup of tea. I was expecting a funny story a la the Mercy Watson series, but what I found was more quirky than zany and overall more emotional than I was anticipating. I think the story is well-written, and there are entire scenes that came across so vividly I can replay them in my mind even without the book in front of me. I liked Ruby Clyde and I found the resolution to her story believable and satisfying. I just don't think I was in the right mood for a sassy tomboy character, or for the strange and unfortunate circumstances that shape the events immediately following her birthday. I would definitely have no qualms about recommending the book to Christian families (even the Catholic ones!), but I do think it's a book that a certain type of reader will appreciate more than others. I could appreciate what was good about it; I just didn't feel that it was my type of book overall.

Either way, I think Corabel Shofner is an author to watch in the coming years. Almost Paradise is a strong debut, and I'll be curious to see what other stories she tells in future novels.

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

[Rita Welty Bourke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruby Clyde Henderson is as delightful a character as you’re likely to run across in a lifetime of reading. Twelve years old, suddenly on her own, she’s sassy, smart, inquisitive, … there aren’t enough adjective to adequately describe her. She’s just plain one-of-a-kind.
When she renames the low-life her mother has taken up with “Catfish,” we know who this man is, what he looks like, and what he is capable of. When she names her pet pig Bunny, we know this creature is soft and cuddly, and he will be faithful to the girl who has rescued him from the circus where he was being held. That her Aunt Helen lives in the middle of a peach orchard speaks volumes about the place where Ruby Clyde finally finds refuge.
Her quips are wonderfully on target: “Bullies are all the same. When I find one, I beat them up.” “…people tell you not to lie but they hardly ever want to hear the truth.” “If you wait for perfect you will end up with nothing.”
This is a book to treasure. Buy two copies, so you have a spare to give to anyone who needs a laugh, an example of pure spunk overcoming adversity, a wild ride across the country until our heroine finally finds a home.

P.S. This is not a middle grade book. It’s a book for all ages.

[DB · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I believe places can heal. I believe science can heal. I believe God can heal. And I believe my hands can heal. It is best to use all of the above to get maximum results."

I loved this beautifully written story about Ruby clyde, a tough, yet compassionate, young girl who's been forced to grow up way too fast. I would be happy to live at Paradise Ranch with Ruby, sitting in the trees, eating peaches, for the rest of my life. But just as the cover states, home is where you make it.

"Turtles carry their homes with them, why couldn't I? Besides, my home was no longer a place, it was my people. People heal each other, and it takes time."

[Mrs. Mazzola · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is definitely an audience for this book, but that just isn't me. I know you aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but when I looked at it, I was expecting the story to be some sort of Charlotte's Web / Kate DiCamillo love child, and it definitely wasn't that. It was strange, intense and heavy-handed and included religious allusions and discussions that made me uncomfortable. The writing itself is really well-done, but the story was not what I anticipated and I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped.

[Emma Whear]

Been reading a lot of middlegrade to get a sense for the market.
This one didn't do it for me.

Reminds me of the vibes of Bachman's Anxious People, re-written in a 12-year-olds voice. Seems really popular right now to have your middlegrade characters say really deep things – John Green level deep – and the adults in the story take it in stride. Doesn't resonate with me.

For instance, the main character in this book talked about "pieces of love," in that you can love parts of people, even if they have their flaws. She was 12-ish. I have a 12-year-old sister. Ain't happening.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruby Clyde's voicey sass reached out from the pages and made me want to be her 1) friend, 2) sister, 3) mom, 4) anything! This kid navigates some extremely dysfunctional adults and situations, but the whole time you know she has it in her to make it through. The addition of the pig into the story (and the *darling* scene break images) made for some laugh out loud moments. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't quite put my finger on what it was, but something about this book put me off almost immediately. I forced myself through half of it, thinking maybe it would get better and I would stop feeling that way, but I never did. There's just something so off-putting about the writing style, and the subject matter. It's not often I don't finish reading a book, but this is definitely getting added to the DNF shelf.

[Sarah Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a perfectly lovely book about the longing for home and family. Almost Paradise is a decidedly Southern story full of wackadoodle characters and roadside attractions ... with an ornery nun and pet pig thrown into the mix. Ruby Clyde's voice is spot-on and full of heart as she navigates her journey and learns to "love in pieces."

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is this generation's beloved book for the kids of the parents who grew up and loved Charlotte's Web. Big heart. Pig (rescued from a circus) and strong little girl, Ruby Clyde, in a tough situation...car adventure and quirky adults showing up, (nuns, campfire guests) and helping her along the way. Great for 8-12 year olds, but at 54 years of age, I feel like it's for every age who love to read well-written books.

[LibraryLaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come for School Library Journal.