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Ruby's Imagine
A storm is coming. Big Oak told Ruby Butterfly and Ruby Butterfly told Ruby the girl. But how does Ruby the girl tell everyone else? Her grandmother, Mammaloose, will say it’s Ruby’s imagination—not real. Like Ruby’s memories of her mama and daddy—just make-believe. But this storm isn’t make-believe. It’s coming hard and strong, set to destroy everything in its path. And if the storm is real, maybe Ruby’s memories are, too.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published September 8, 2008
2 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Kim Antieau
125 books54 followersKim Antieau is the author of several novels and short stories for adults and teenagers, including Mercy, Unbound. She graduated Eastern Michigan University and lives with her husband, poet Mario Milosevic, in the Pacific Northwest. Aside from writing books, she works as a librarian.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
July 28, 2009
A moving story of what it was like to survive Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I loved the way Antieau made Ruby talk, in a dialect all her own. The novel is peopled with unique characters, and it's sad to think of that wonderful neighborhood community destroyed by the hurricane. The ending is a surprise, and goes to show that appearances may not be revealing the whole truth. Highly recommended!
November 6, 2018
I didn't really like this book. I didn't like this book cause it was so slow going, the grammar the main character had was awful and at some points hard to understand, the book was to short and didn't have that much action. This was a realistic fiction book about a strange out of the box kinda hippyish girl and her imagination. I don't know who would like this, I supposes someone who can relate tho the main character i tried to describe but as i don't really relate to her or understand it i didn't like much.
August 19, 2017
I only read a few pages of this book and was annoyed. It uses a very southern tone and maybe it's because I'm a northerner, I'm not sure, but I found this to be the reason I had to put down this book.
July 31, 2017
i could not get into this book
November 6, 2013
"A butterfly the color of my name did tell me that a Big Spin was coming our way"(Antieau 1). This is how the book begins. A very interesting I thought maybe this was a quote maybe I thought the character was maybe 6 or 7, which this would have been fine. But I discovered that she is 17, this bothered me even more. I guess I don't want to have to work so hard to understand what is being said ad was sad she could not talk in a right context. I suppose want it to be said properly and not have to try to decipher what was being said. The main character is someone who sort of lives in her own world a lot of the time. She has her own way of speaking, with different names for things. This was obvious from the very first page; as well the fact that something big was going to happen. So this was defiantly the greatest weakness.
But on the other hand this book also is very addicting at some parts. So it was a pretty decent book. It goes through the events of Hurricane Katrina from the perspective of Ruby. She knows the storm is coming, but she also knows that nobody believes her. But she dose not make a huge deal about it and just continues her regular day to day living but thinking about her friends and her family that she’s never known. Her life is really something interesting, but they barely talked about her lie at all. This was actually very sad. Because the memories she decried of her family through out the book were amazing they just never, “My parents died when I was five, I do have images of my parents when I was five but I do have images in my mid of the swamp and my sisters, opal and pearl. And I can still hear my daddy's voice (Antieau 5). And they’re where a great deal of other memories that had you really questioning whither her memories where actually true. There where a lot of things that weren’t described in too much detail as well, and Ruby is such an interesting character that it left you really wanting to know more about her. But this was probably one of the strengths as well.
But no with such a big event occurring in this book, I thought it fell slightly short of expectations that is was leading towards. A lot of the novel was about Ruby, and the rest of it was about the hurricane, I had a hard time figuring out what the main purpose was. Was it to describe Ruby and her family situation, or to talk about the hurricane? I am left slightly confused, and so I can’t say that this book will really stick with me for very long. And I honestly don’t think there are any specific readers for this book. I got it because sometimes I often think I can remember things I don’t know if they actually happened. But that is not what this book was really about.
I believe the author wrote this book to entertain the audience though. I don’t think she intended to make it so confusing with the vocabulary she had for ruby but that is the only thing to me I can not say throws the book off enough. But the book was very captivating in the fact that she was smart but unintelligent at the same time. I don’t know if the author did this on purpose to make it seem as ruby may have had some sort of mental illness but either way it is an interesting concept but is a definite bonus to the book.
Now to recommend this to a fried I would have to know if they where really into like southern language or don’t mind working hard to get what is being said across. And also know they enjoy learning about how people think differently and can hear and live differently then most people. But over all even though it is not an terrible book I probably would not recommend this to a friend because they might get angry with the language and throw the book at me and not want to be my friend anymore because it is hard to get though the whole book almost not knowing what she is trying to say and maybe for some people it might have a different effect. But all in al this is a very interesting book and was worth the read for a short book.
But on the other hand this book also is very addicting at some parts. So it was a pretty decent book. It goes through the events of Hurricane Katrina from the perspective of Ruby. She knows the storm is coming, but she also knows that nobody believes her. But she dose not make a huge deal about it and just continues her regular day to day living but thinking about her friends and her family that she’s never known. Her life is really something interesting, but they barely talked about her lie at all. This was actually very sad. Because the memories she decried of her family through out the book were amazing they just never, “My parents died when I was five, I do have images of my parents when I was five but I do have images in my mid of the swamp and my sisters, opal and pearl. And I can still hear my daddy's voice (Antieau 5). And they’re where a great deal of other memories that had you really questioning whither her memories where actually true. There where a lot of things that weren’t described in too much detail as well, and Ruby is such an interesting character that it left you really wanting to know more about her. But this was probably one of the strengths as well.
But no with such a big event occurring in this book, I thought it fell slightly short of expectations that is was leading towards. A lot of the novel was about Ruby, and the rest of it was about the hurricane, I had a hard time figuring out what the main purpose was. Was it to describe Ruby and her family situation, or to talk about the hurricane? I am left slightly confused, and so I can’t say that this book will really stick with me for very long. And I honestly don’t think there are any specific readers for this book. I got it because sometimes I often think I can remember things I don’t know if they actually happened. But that is not what this book was really about.
I believe the author wrote this book to entertain the audience though. I don’t think she intended to make it so confusing with the vocabulary she had for ruby but that is the only thing to me I can not say throws the book off enough. But the book was very captivating in the fact that she was smart but unintelligent at the same time. I don’t know if the author did this on purpose to make it seem as ruby may have had some sort of mental illness but either way it is an interesting concept but is a definite bonus to the book.
Now to recommend this to a fried I would have to know if they where really into like southern language or don’t mind working hard to get what is being said across. And also know they enjoy learning about how people think differently and can hear and live differently then most people. But over all even though it is not an terrible book I probably would not recommend this to a friend because they might get angry with the language and throw the book at me and not want to be my friend anymore because it is hard to get though the whole book almost not knowing what she is trying to say and maybe for some people it might have a different effect. But all in al this is a very interesting book and was worth the read for a short book.
July 26, 2008
Antieau, Kim. 2008. Ruby's Imagine. September 2008 release.
First sentence: A Butterfly the color of my name did tell me that a Big Spin was coming our way.
Ruby, our narrator, is a teen girl with a unique way of seeing the world, a unique way of talking. Let's just say--long story short--that she likes Capital Letters. (I can imagine that this will irritate some readers.) Her own way of speaking does set her apart from others in her New Orleans community, and it irritates the dickens out of the woman who is raising her, Mammaloose, her grandmother. "Mammaloose never hears my words as glad tidings. She says I is constantly putting a target on myself by using my Ruby words." (2) But her best friend, a young guy named Jacob Lazarus, JayEl sees it differently. He appreciates her in a way only a best friend can. One other thing I should mention, Ruby speaks with "Flying People" and "Rooted People." She has a very hands-on approach to nature, and loves to converse with the trees and plants and insects and birds.
Here's just a snippet so you'll see what I mean about Ruby's voice:
I walked the place where I lives--I calls it my Garden of Neighbors--down toward JayEl's Daddy's Corner of Happiness Store. Some people talks about what ward they lives in. I don't do that. I heard Mammaloose once say that calling where you lives a ward make you sound like you living in some kind of institution. I can only be agreeing with her. I says I is a citizen of the Earth and right now I be living in a place somewheres between the old oak next to the yellow-two-story and the gum tree out front of the pale green double shotgun. I lives in the place where the wisteria dips over the fence to hold hands with the magnolia that dips down to say hello to the Place Where My Vegetables Grow. That's where I lives. (11)
Ruby likes to give unique names to all the people and places in her life. In a limited way, I suppose, you could call Ruby a modern-day Anne of Green Gables.
When the book opens, Ruby has just been warned--by a butterfly, though later warnings come from other animals--that a "Big Spin" is on its way. That danger is coming. Danger with a capital D. And Ruby does warn a few folks as the days pass, but it isn't until the radio and TV start talking about a hurricane--a big hurricane--Hurricane Katrina--that folks really start listening. But listening doesn't mean acting, not necessarily. Ruby and her friends--some by choice, some not so much--do end up braving the storm right where they are, in their own homes.
And it is when the storm hits that Ruby's Imagine transitions from a slightly-irritating, slightly jarring book to a true page-turner. The more intense the action--the storm and its aftermath--the more "normal" Ruby becomes. Her speech, her thoughts, change and shift. In the heat of the moment at least, Ruby is too focused on surviving, on clinging to her friends and family, to "bless" the readers with her uniquely capitalized take on the world around her.
The second half of the book is a page-turner. It is here that the action begins to happen. Here where characters begin to develop, begin to matter. Here where family secrets get thrown to the surface. The book loses some of its foolishness and gets down to business.
The book--especially the second-half--is interesting and well worth reading. It's not flawless. I can imagine some readers will feel *elements* of the story to be a bit unbelievable, a bit too coincidental. But at the same time, those elements feel good even if they're not quite credible. I can't go into details of exactly what I mean because it would spoil the story. But if you've read it, you'll probably be able to guess what I'm referring to.
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
First sentence: A Butterfly the color of my name did tell me that a Big Spin was coming our way.
Ruby, our narrator, is a teen girl with a unique way of seeing the world, a unique way of talking. Let's just say--long story short--that she likes Capital Letters. (I can imagine that this will irritate some readers.) Her own way of speaking does set her apart from others in her New Orleans community, and it irritates the dickens out of the woman who is raising her, Mammaloose, her grandmother. "Mammaloose never hears my words as glad tidings. She says I is constantly putting a target on myself by using my Ruby words." (2) But her best friend, a young guy named Jacob Lazarus, JayEl sees it differently. He appreciates her in a way only a best friend can. One other thing I should mention, Ruby speaks with "Flying People" and "Rooted People." She has a very hands-on approach to nature, and loves to converse with the trees and plants and insects and birds.
Here's just a snippet so you'll see what I mean about Ruby's voice:
I walked the place where I lives--I calls it my Garden of Neighbors--down toward JayEl's Daddy's Corner of Happiness Store. Some people talks about what ward they lives in. I don't do that. I heard Mammaloose once say that calling where you lives a ward make you sound like you living in some kind of institution. I can only be agreeing with her. I says I is a citizen of the Earth and right now I be living in a place somewheres between the old oak next to the yellow-two-story and the gum tree out front of the pale green double shotgun. I lives in the place where the wisteria dips over the fence to hold hands with the magnolia that dips down to say hello to the Place Where My Vegetables Grow. That's where I lives. (11)
Ruby likes to give unique names to all the people and places in her life. In a limited way, I suppose, you could call Ruby a modern-day Anne of Green Gables.
When the book opens, Ruby has just been warned--by a butterfly, though later warnings come from other animals--that a "Big Spin" is on its way. That danger is coming. Danger with a capital D. And Ruby does warn a few folks as the days pass, but it isn't until the radio and TV start talking about a hurricane--a big hurricane--Hurricane Katrina--that folks really start listening. But listening doesn't mean acting, not necessarily. Ruby and her friends--some by choice, some not so much--do end up braving the storm right where they are, in their own homes.
And it is when the storm hits that Ruby's Imagine transitions from a slightly-irritating, slightly jarring book to a true page-turner. The more intense the action--the storm and its aftermath--the more "normal" Ruby becomes. Her speech, her thoughts, change and shift. In the heat of the moment at least, Ruby is too focused on surviving, on clinging to her friends and family, to "bless" the readers with her uniquely capitalized take on the world around her.
The second half of the book is a page-turner. It is here that the action begins to happen. Here where characters begin to develop, begin to matter. Here where family secrets get thrown to the surface. The book loses some of its foolishness and gets down to business.
The book--especially the second-half--is interesting and well worth reading. It's not flawless. I can imagine some readers will feel *elements* of the story to be a bit unbelievable, a bit too coincidental. But at the same time, those elements feel good even if they're not quite credible. I can't go into details of exactly what I mean because it would spoil the story. But if you've read it, you'll probably be able to guess what I'm referring to.
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
November 4, 2012
Reviewed by JodiG. for TeensReadToo.com
There is a big storm coming. A "Big Spin," as Ruby calls it. Ruby knows the storm is coming because Ruby Butterfly told her, and the Big Oaks told Ruby Butterfly. So it must be true. But, should Ruby tell anyone else? Her grandmother, Mammaloose, says that Ruby just makes things up. Mammaloose probably wouldn't believe her. She would just say it's one more thing from Ruby's imagine. Kind of like Ruby's memories of her sisters and living in the swamp. Just Ruby's imagine.
Not real at all.
Ruby lives in Louisiana with Mammaloose and Uncle Gilbert. Ruby has a special way of talking. Her friend JayEl says it is like Ruby paints a picture with her words. Its just one more thing that makes Ruby stand apart from other people.
Mammaloose isn't particularly loving towards Ruby, but she has her good friends, human and otherwise. The flying people, the rooted people, Samuel Beckett Sparrow and Maya Angelou Hummingbird, Mr. Lagniappe and JayEl, all seem to understand Ruby better than her own grandmother. And Ruby loves everyone. And she warns them that the storm is coming. The storm is real, and it is coming straight toward them. Everything Ruby knows and imagines is about to change because the storm is bringing more destruction than anyone could have imagined and more truth as well.
As Ruby sees her neighborhood swallowed up by the water, she also finds out the truth about the family secrets that have been kept from her for too long. As it turns out, not everything was just Ruby's imagine.
RUBY'S IMAGINE is a true gem of a novel. You become immediately immersed in Ruby's world through her use of highly evocative words and her pure feelings for everyone and everything around her. The story is set during the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Along with a moving story about family and community, there is a very real message about the environment, a subject that is becoming more and more important to every one of us.
Most importantly though, Ruby is a character to cherish. Someone who is as in tune with nature and the people around her as she is with herself. Someone who is nonjudgmental, loving, and forgiving. Someone who likes to make a difference. She is guaranteed to be a character that you will remember for a long time to come.
There is a big storm coming. A "Big Spin," as Ruby calls it. Ruby knows the storm is coming because Ruby Butterfly told her, and the Big Oaks told Ruby Butterfly. So it must be true. But, should Ruby tell anyone else? Her grandmother, Mammaloose, says that Ruby just makes things up. Mammaloose probably wouldn't believe her. She would just say it's one more thing from Ruby's imagine. Kind of like Ruby's memories of her sisters and living in the swamp. Just Ruby's imagine.
Not real at all.
Ruby lives in Louisiana with Mammaloose and Uncle Gilbert. Ruby has a special way of talking. Her friend JayEl says it is like Ruby paints a picture with her words. Its just one more thing that makes Ruby stand apart from other people.
Mammaloose isn't particularly loving towards Ruby, but she has her good friends, human and otherwise. The flying people, the rooted people, Samuel Beckett Sparrow and Maya Angelou Hummingbird, Mr. Lagniappe and JayEl, all seem to understand Ruby better than her own grandmother. And Ruby loves everyone. And she warns them that the storm is coming. The storm is real, and it is coming straight toward them. Everything Ruby knows and imagines is about to change because the storm is bringing more destruction than anyone could have imagined and more truth as well.
As Ruby sees her neighborhood swallowed up by the water, she also finds out the truth about the family secrets that have been kept from her for too long. As it turns out, not everything was just Ruby's imagine.
RUBY'S IMAGINE is a true gem of a novel. You become immediately immersed in Ruby's world through her use of highly evocative words and her pure feelings for everyone and everything around her. The story is set during the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Along with a moving story about family and community, there is a very real message about the environment, a subject that is becoming more and more important to every one of us.
Most importantly though, Ruby is a character to cherish. Someone who is as in tune with nature and the people around her as she is with herself. Someone who is nonjudgmental, loving, and forgiving. Someone who likes to make a difference. She is guaranteed to be a character that you will remember for a long time to come.
April 18, 2018
Good book and narrative but little hard to understand if you have trouble with language
September 15, 2012
Ruby is a happy,cheeky girl. She lives in her small town in Louisiana with her (somewhat) grandma and uncle. She's always talking to the animals and plants, her friends. Ruby's life is almost alright just until a huge storm crashes through Ruby's petite town, destroying everything. But who would've known that this big wind could be the one thing to reveal family secrets, and Ruby's true love for Jay-El.
I feel I have a connection to the main character in t Ruby's Imagine, Ruby. First of all, Ruby and I both have a special love for animals,plants,just nature. Also, in this book, Ruby is told by her crazy grandmother and drunken Uncle all the time that she is stupid, and wierd. They call her this because Ruby sometimes thinks and does funky stuff. This is alot like me because at home, my sisters call me these words because I do wierd things and think funny things alot. But sadly, Ruby's family does this in a mean way, my sisters are usally just joking around. Another way Ruby and I are connected is both our interest in cooking our seceret reciepes.
I would definetly recommend this book to an audience who tends to get drawn toward more emotional books. I would recommend Ruby's Imagine because not only does this book have it's devastating, emotional sections, it has what every book needs atleast a little bit of. Humor, everything needs it. Plus, Ruby's Imagine, os course, has the perfect amount of girly love-story. Truthfully, I believe that if you like more serious books with a little bit of humor and love, I would strongly recommend this breath-taking story, Ruby's Imagine.
I feel I have a connection to the main character in t Ruby's Imagine, Ruby. First of all, Ruby and I both have a special love for animals,plants,just nature. Also, in this book, Ruby is told by her crazy grandmother and drunken Uncle all the time that she is stupid, and wierd. They call her this because Ruby sometimes thinks and does funky stuff. This is alot like me because at home, my sisters call me these words because I do wierd things and think funny things alot. But sadly, Ruby's family does this in a mean way, my sisters are usally just joking around. Another way Ruby and I are connected is both our interest in cooking our seceret reciepes.
I would definetly recommend this book to an audience who tends to get drawn toward more emotional books. I would recommend Ruby's Imagine because not only does this book have it's devastating, emotional sections, it has what every book needs atleast a little bit of. Humor, everything needs it. Plus, Ruby's Imagine, os course, has the perfect amount of girly love-story. Truthfully, I believe that if you like more serious books with a little bit of humor and love, I would strongly recommend this breath-taking story, Ruby's Imagine.
May 22, 2011
"I never heard nothing so loud as this storm. And it was so dark and loud and I was shivering inside because I never in my life felt as alone as I did that moment, like nothing else existed anywhere but this whirlwind of sound and it wasn't nothing personal but I was gonna be sucked away and be a part of the noise and the wet darkness forever."
Ruby lives in New Orleans with her grandmother and the ruby butterfly told her that the coming storm is going to be a bad one. The Big Spin is coming and the people of her town have to decide if they are going to wait out the storm or head for higher ground. This is a story of Hurricane Katrina and does a great job of describing the situation during the week that the storm hit.
It was hard to get into the story at first because of the way in which the story was written. Ruby tells the story, but she speaks in a way that is far from typical. I'm really glad that I kept reading though, because once the storm hits the story takes a different turn. The story was full of hope and perspective, and I really enjoyed it.
I think this would be a really good addition to any curriculum because it could be a way to talk about what happened during the storm and what continues to happen. The poverty in that area is devastating, but we didn't really hear enough about the storm. I would place this book at about junior or senior year because of the writing style. I think it is important for students to read something like this because it can help them to become interested in the history of the storm.
Ruby lives in New Orleans with her grandmother and the ruby butterfly told her that the coming storm is going to be a bad one. The Big Spin is coming and the people of her town have to decide if they are going to wait out the storm or head for higher ground. This is a story of Hurricane Katrina and does a great job of describing the situation during the week that the storm hit.
It was hard to get into the story at first because of the way in which the story was written. Ruby tells the story, but she speaks in a way that is far from typical. I'm really glad that I kept reading though, because once the storm hits the story takes a different turn. The story was full of hope and perspective, and I really enjoyed it.
I think this would be a really good addition to any curriculum because it could be a way to talk about what happened during the storm and what continues to happen. The poverty in that area is devastating, but we didn't really hear enough about the storm. I would place this book at about junior or senior year because of the writing style. I think it is important for students to read something like this because it can help them to become interested in the history of the storm.
March 1, 2013
I still can't figure this book out altogether. The outside story is quite easy to grasp--one girl's perspective on Hurricane Katrina and the devastation and abuse of the poor that goes on in the aftermath--but Ruby's personal story is a little harder to puzzle out. She is portrayed as having a special connection with nature, getting information from birds and butterflies. She's passionate about conservation, but in a quiet, understated way rather than the usual sign-toting fare we're treated to. She's also told as reasonably intelligent, having won a scholarship, but in a totally non-analytical way.
I suspect that there might be a slight mental illness component to this story. Ruby's point of view seems exceedingly childlike to me, and her seventeen-year-old body felt like an unwanted, oversized addition to her character. Her inside reminds me of some of the autistic points of view I've read before, but on the outside she is loving and engaging, even though she seems not to grasp things in a normal way. Is there such a thing as undiagnosed Down's Syndrome? I'm not sure that there is, but this is close to how I would describe Ruby.
Either way, Ruby's Imagine is a very beautiful book. The prose is almost poetic, very soothing and rhythmic even in times of stress. My only complaint is the one stated above about her point of view and mental health. Maybe she's just very odd? Maybe it's supposed to be obvious that she's not all there? Whichever one it is, I felt frustrated by the ambiguity.
I suspect that there might be a slight mental illness component to this story. Ruby's point of view seems exceedingly childlike to me, and her seventeen-year-old body felt like an unwanted, oversized addition to her character. Her inside reminds me of some of the autistic points of view I've read before, but on the outside she is loving and engaging, even though she seems not to grasp things in a normal way. Is there such a thing as undiagnosed Down's Syndrome? I'm not sure that there is, but this is close to how I would describe Ruby.
Either way, Ruby's Imagine is a very beautiful book. The prose is almost poetic, very soothing and rhythmic even in times of stress. My only complaint is the one stated above about her point of view and mental health. Maybe she's just very odd? Maybe it's supposed to be obvious that she's not all there? Whichever one it is, I felt frustrated by the ambiguity.
January 5, 2010
Ruby, a seventeen-year-old girl in New Orleans, has a close relationship with the living things in the world around her; the trees and birds all tell her their secrets. One day a bird tells her that a hurricane is coming, a hurricane that ends up being Hurricane Katrina.
I hated the first half of this book, and the only reason I'm giving it two stars is because I actually found the second half, after the hurricane arrives, to be very good. While the first half does establish the characters and their relationships, nothing else seems to happen for almost a hundred pages, and if it weren't for the fact that I agreed to read and review this book, I never would have kept going with it.
My major personal gripe about the book is this: it's written from Ruby's point of view, in a non-standard, Southern-accented English. It drove me crazy. I'm sure that this is meant to be part of the appeal of the book, based on the belief that young people who speak with this type of accent (it's possibly a version of African American English, I'm not sure) would identify with the language. For me, though, it made a slow story go even slower as I stumbled through. Nonetheless, it was an interesting story of a community pulling together in the wake of disaster, once it actually got started.
I hated the first half of this book, and the only reason I'm giving it two stars is because I actually found the second half, after the hurricane arrives, to be very good. While the first half does establish the characters and their relationships, nothing else seems to happen for almost a hundred pages, and if it weren't for the fact that I agreed to read and review this book, I never would have kept going with it.
My major personal gripe about the book is this: it's written from Ruby's point of view, in a non-standard, Southern-accented English. It drove me crazy. I'm sure that this is meant to be part of the appeal of the book, based on the belief that young people who speak with this type of accent (it's possibly a version of African American English, I'm not sure) would identify with the language. For me, though, it made a slow story go even slower as I stumbled through. Nonetheless, it was an interesting story of a community pulling together in the wake of disaster, once it actually got started.
February 4, 2022
DNF.
I found this book at my local library one day in early high school, and I knew nothing about it but I checked it out based on the cover and title.
Well, that was my mistake because the title should tell you everything you need to know about this book. It's called "Ruby's Imagine" instead of "Ruby's Imagination" for a reason. And the whole book is filled with words and phrases like that, words used improperly or the wrong suffix on a word, or just plain incorrect English usage. The main character had her own way of talking with her own grammar and vocabulary, but it only hindered the book and completely stunted my enjoyment of the book. In fact, writing this book like that made it impossible to read or understand and was the reason I quit reading.
I think I gave up on this book after only a few pages because its language was so convoluted and confusing. I don't know what the author's intention was writing the book like that, but it was NOT working whatsoever.
My Book Blog: Storeys of Stories
I found this book at my local library one day in early high school, and I knew nothing about it but I checked it out based on the cover and title.
Well, that was my mistake because the title should tell you everything you need to know about this book. It's called "Ruby's Imagine" instead of "Ruby's Imagination" for a reason. And the whole book is filled with words and phrases like that, words used improperly or the wrong suffix on a word, or just plain incorrect English usage. The main character had her own way of talking with her own grammar and vocabulary, but it only hindered the book and completely stunted my enjoyment of the book. In fact, writing this book like that made it impossible to read or understand and was the reason I quit reading.
I think I gave up on this book after only a few pages because its language was so convoluted and confusing. I don't know what the author's intention was writing the book like that, but it was NOT working whatsoever.
My Book Blog: Storeys of Stories
July 17, 2014
This is a delight tale of Ruby who sees the world in a wonderful, magical way. Despite the continual negativity directed toward her by her grandmother, Ruby thrives. Without triteness or corniness, the author weaves a beautiful story of Ruby who makes wonderment for all.
When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, LA, and the leeves break, Ruby and her grandmother are able to climb to the attic. As the roof is blown away, they witness the incredible devastation.
In grand denial, Ruby's grandmother refused to leave. When her grandmother's boyfriend leaves before the hurricane hits, leaving them to fend for themselves, it is obvious that Ruby must be the strong one to navigate them to safety.
When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, LA, and the leeves break, Ruby and her grandmother are able to climb to the attic. As the roof is blown away, they witness the incredible devastation.
In grand denial, Ruby's grandmother refused to leave. When her grandmother's boyfriend leaves before the hurricane hits, leaving them to fend for themselves, it is obvious that Ruby must be the strong one to navigate them to safety.
January 19, 2011
Ruby is a unique character. I love the magical way she describes everything and everyone around her. Trees are "Rooted People", birds are "Flying People", and her garden is "The Place Where My Vegetables Grow. As she and her family experience the awful events of Hurricane Katrina, her positive outlook helps them cope and survive. A great book!
November 30, 2011
Ruby, a teenager with a vivid imagination, has grown up with her grandmother who has told her all her life that her parents were dead and she was an only child. When Hurricane Katrina hits Louisiana. Ruby learns the truth about her background and her grandmother and finds a way to move forward past the destruction.
June 23, 2013
It took a little getting used to, as Ruby's speech patterns were, um, different. It seems that she is very bright, but the fact that she has limited social and emotional interactions with her family has stunted her somewhat. Even her friend, JayEl, notices when she speaks more like everyone else. It is a beautiful story, a wonderful tribute to those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
May 5, 2011
If you can get past the specific dialect it is written in, it is definetly worth the read. About a girl, Ruby, who is very in touch with nature. She lives through Hurricane Katrina in what I assume is the 9th ward in New Orleans. Not actually a true story, but certainly realistic.
April 11, 2015
Sucked me in and I read the whole thing in one afternoon. It is a short book but it still gripped me and didn't let go until I finished. The story line was a bit dues ex machina. Liked the characters and liked hearing about Katrina from point of view of survivors and why some of them stayed.
January 20, 2009
pretty cool :D
March 11, 2009
I'm sending this to all of my women friends. The story of a beautiful spirit thrust into the worst of circumstances. Oh! and the language is beautiful.
July 5, 2009
I'm in a quandry about rating this book and writing about it. It's really uneven in language and tone, but the overall "feel" of it is so life-affirming I hope it gets read by a wide audience.
October 31, 2009
Interesting take on Katrina.
December 8, 2009
It is a kittle hard to follow so-far, but I like the characters.
February 9, 2010
I stayed up until the wee hours to finish this book. Just couldn't put it down. It was written to honor the Katrina victims and I think it did a good job of it.
June 5, 2011
Very well good to be excat at first couldn't quite understand what I was reading but half way through I realized what it was about and have to say not bad I like it.
May 3, 2012
read as a proof copy--picked it up at ALA....very good book, recommended
December 29, 2014
I just couldn't connect at all with Ruby's character.
October 21, 2014
Hurricane Katrina...and an interesting main character/narrator.
January 18, 2016
Hard book to get into at first but it does come alive.
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