Product Description

Ruby Lavender and Miss Eula are a pretty good team, for a couple of chicken thieves. What other granddaughter-grandmother duo could successfully drive the getaway car for chickens rescued from a journey to the slaughterhouse, paint a whole house shocking pink, and operate their own personal secret-letter post office? So, when Miss Eula leaves for Hawaii to visit her new grandbaby, Ruby is sure that she will have a lonely, empty, horrible summer in boring old Halleluia, Mississippi. What happens instead? She makes a new friend, saves the school play, writes plenty of letters to her favorite (and only) grandmother . . . and finally learns to stop blaming herself for her grandfather's death. Not too bad, for a nine-year-old.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1235688 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-28
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .84" h x 5.78" w x 8.54" l, .81 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 200 pages

From School Library Journal

Gr 4-7-A lively, humorous story featuring Miss Eula Garnet and her granddaughter Ruby as they share adventures and day-to-day miseries. The feisty duo shakes up their Mississippi town, Halleluia, "Population: 400 Good Friendly Folks And A Few Old Soreheads," when they liberate three soon-to-be-euthanized chickens from an egg ranch in a daring, daylight raid. They share an abiding sadness over the death of Grandpa Garnet, whose passing seems to be clouded by some terrible secret. When Miss Eula announces an unexpected trip to Hawaii to visit her son and to put some distance between herself and sorrow, the girl is shattered. Ruby fills her days by writing daily letters to her grandmother, monitoring the chickens, befriending the niece of the new fourth-grade teacher, and trying to avoid her nemesis whose father died in the same accident as Grandpa Garnet. Tensions between Ruby and Melba escalate as rehearsals for the annual Town Operetta commence. Resulting fireworks clear the air, reveal secrets, and resolve hard feelings just in time for Miss Eula's return. The engaging narrative, interspersed with amusing letters exchanged between Eula and Ruby and articles from the local newspaper, is witty and fast paced and the quirky, diverse cast of human and poultry characters is colorful and spirited, if not totally realistic. This refreshing novel recognizes how daily events often take on huge proportions in the minds of children and that with love, support, and kindness, youngsters can find their way.-Alice Casey Smith, Sayreville Public Schools, Parlin, NJ

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Good garden of peas! It's hard to imagine a better book for audio narration than this charming, funny, and deeply touching novel of life in the small town of Halleluia, Mississippi. Think kidnapped chickens! Think Yoo-Hoo and pink muumuus! Think handmade quilts, letters tucked into the root tangle of a silver maple tree, and the deep love between a granddaughter--9-year-old Ruby L--and her widowed grandmother--Miss Eula. Judith Ivey's long, leisurely vowels are filled with the sultriness of summer, the longing for connection, the generations-old belief that life does go on, even after a tragic loss. Ivey, Bemmie, and Bess will squawk at you. Miss Mattie will scold you sternly. Aunt Tot will bless your heart. Miss Eula will cajole you with the hoarse voice of reason. And Ruby herself will charm you with her brash enthusiasm and down-home sincerity. There's more fun and feeling here than you can shake a stick at! T.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. Ruby Lavender is a nine-year-old charmer, in love with life and her adoring grandmother. She and Miss Eula keep in touch daily by leaving letters for each other in the knothole of a silver maple in Halleluia, Mississippi--that is, until Miss Eula goes to Hawaii to visit her son and his wife and her new granddaughter, Leilani. Ruby is crushed, forced to spend a hot summer on her own, and jealous, too, of a new little girl she fears will steal her grandmother's heart. But the summer is a maturing one as Ruby nurtures hatching chickens, makes a new friend, Dove, and finally comes to terms with her grandfather's death. Wiles has painted a picture of a time long past when communities were small and close-knit, people wrote letters, and chickens escaped only to create havoc at play practice. Yet she has also created a timeless story of life and death, the bond between grandparent and grandchild, and the reality that, regardless, "life does go on." Frances Bradburn
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