A distinctive story about individuality, from award-winning author and illustrator Peggy Rathmann
Ruby is a copycat! It's the first day of school, and Ruby is new. When her classmate Angela wears a red bow in her hair, Ruby comes back from lunch wearing a red bow, too. When Angela wears a flowered dress, suddenly Ruby's wearing one, too. Fortunately, Ruby's teacher knows a better way to help Ruby fit in-by showing Ruby how much fun it is to be herself.
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It seems that something other than coincidence is at work when diminutive Ruby, a newcomer to Miss Hart's class, is entranced by schoolmate Angela's attention-getting red bow and returns from lunch with an identical bow atop her head. Ruby's maddening habit becomes increasingly apparent as she happily endures a rainbow of wet paint in imitation of Angela's hand-painted outfit, proudly plagiarizes Angela's poetry and tries pink press-on nails after admiring Miss Hart's manicure. Finally, challenged to display a talent all her own, Ruby admits that she likes to hop and masterfully bounces around her desk. To her surprise, she impresses her classmates and wins Angela's friendship at last. Rathmann's expressively illustrated, quirky and individualistic first book encourages readers to have confidence and not to take skills, however unimpressive they may seem, for granted. Ages 4-8. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2-- A book with a strong story and complementary illustrations that addresses the philosophical question of individuality vs. conformity. Ruby, the new girl at school, is immediately taken with Angela's bright red bow. At lunchtime she hops home and returns with a similar bow in her hair. Throughout the week she copies not only what Angela wears but also what she says and does. By Friday Angela is fed up. Their teacher tells Ruby, ``You can be anything you want to be, but be Ruby first.'' On Monday Ruby has moved on to copying her. Prodded by Miss Hart, she admits to having simply spent her weekend hopping, at which point she starts a hopping jamboree and now she is the one who is copied. Watch out-- young readers will immediately begin doing the ``Ruby Hop.'' The artwork is reminiscent of both Amy Schwartz and Kevin Henkes; it's fun, expressive, character oriented, and done in colorful pencil-and-ink drawings. A small gem. --Martha Topol, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, MI Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Caldecott-medalist Peggy Rathmann was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in the suburbs with two brothers and two sisters. ""In the summer we lolled in plastic wading pools guzzling Kool-Aid. In the winter we sculpted giant snow animals. It was a good life."" Ms. Rathmann graduated from Mounds View High School in New Brighton, Minnesota, then attended colleges everywhere, changing her major repeatedly. She eventually earned a B.A. in psychology from the University of Minnesota. ""I wanted to teach sign language to gorillas, but after taking a class in signing, I realized what I'd rather do was draw pictures of gorillas."" Ms. Rathmann studied commercial art at the American Academy in Chicago, fine art at the Atelier Lack in Minneapolis, and children's-book writing and illustration at the Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. ""I spent the first three weeks of my writing class at Otis Parsons filching characters from my classmates' stories. Finally, the teacher convinced me that even a beginning writer can create an original character if the character is driven by the writer's most secret weirdness. Eureka! A little girl with a passion for plagiarism! I didn't want anyone to know it was me, so I made the character look like my sister."" The resulting book, Ruby the Copycat, earned Ms. Rathmann the ""Most Promising New Author"" distinction in Publishers Weekly's 1991 annual Cuffie Awards. In 1992 she illustrated Bootsie Barker Bites for Barbara Bottner, her teacher at Otis Parsons. A homework assignment produced an almost wordless story, Good Night, Gorilla, inspired by a childhood memory. ""When I was little, the highlight of the summer was running barefoot through the grass, in the dark, screaming. We played kick-the-can, and three-times-around-the-house, and sometimes we just stood staring into other people's picture windows, wondering what it would be like to go home to someone else's house."" That story, however, was only nineteen pages long, and everyone agreed that the ending was a dud. Two years and ten endings later, Good Night, Gorilla was published and recognized as an ALA Notable Children's Book for 1994. The recipient of the 1996 Caldecott Medal, Officer Buckle and Gloria, is the story of a school safety officer upstaged by his canine partner. ""We have a videotape of my mother chatting in the dining room while, unnoticed by her or the cameraman, the dog is licking every poached egg on the buffet. The next scene shows the whole family at the breakfast table, complimenting my mother on the delicious poached eggs. The dog, of course, is pretending not to know what a poached egg is. The first time we watched that tape we were so shocked, we couldn't stop laughing. I suspect that videotape had a big influence on my choice of subject matter."" Ms. Rathmann lives and works in San Francisco, in an apartment she shares with her husband, John Wick, and a very funny bunch of ants. "
I am 13 years old and I remember that Ruby the Copycat was the first real book I have ever read on my own. This is not counting "Jane ran..." books, so I was about six or seven when I read this book. My mom told me I used to read it over and over and over and over to her. It was such a great book, and still is, and untill this day I still have it!!! I recommend this book to any beginning reader. Ruby is so cute and I LOVE her hair!
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I can't believe any reviewer would criticize the illustrations in this book! As in every Rathman book, the quirky and humorous pictures are half the fun. We love all of Rathman's books, but this is my favorite one to read to my children. In fact, it's one of my favorite books in our entire collection. Highly recommended.
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Even now in Middle School, I get this book out and read it! I bought it when I was in the 2nd grade and I still have the copy.. as a matter of fact I was reading it not too long ago,and I suggest you read it as a family. It has a good storyline :-)
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