Ruby Holler [Hardcover]

Sharon Creech (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: HarperTrophy (2002)
• ISBN-10: 0329372947
• ISBN-13: 978-0329372941
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,853,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sharon Creech is the author of the Newbery Medal winner Walk Two Moons and the Newbery Honor Book The Wanderer. Her other work includes the novels Hate That Cat, The Castle Corona, Replay, Heartbeat, Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, Ruby Holler, Love That Dog, Bloomability, Absolutely Normal Chaos, Chasing Redbird, and Pleasing the Ghost, as well as three picture books: A Fine, Fine School; Fishing in the Air; and Who's That Baby? Ms. Creech and her husband live in upstate New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Little Too Fluffy..., August 9, 2002

By 

Allyn "pianogirl" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Ruby Holler (Carnegie Medal (Awards)) (Hardcover)

Orphaned twins Florida and Dallas are known as troublemakers and stuck in a children's home controlled by monster-like adults. After years of waiting, Sairy and Tiller, a wonderfully kind couple older couple, adopt them. Florida and Dallas think of running away, but...

Need I say more? This book isn't really bad, it's just a little too cutesy and way too predictable. I think a book should take you on journey, make you think, and leave you wondering about some things. From the moment I picked up on all the details of this book's setting, I knew pretty much exactly what was going to happen. Basically, "Ruby Holler" follows the good ol' "happily ever after" formula a little too closely.

The best things about Sharon Creech's most recent offering are the characters. Florida's constant expression of "putrid" will always coax a smile from you, and Dallas has some good moments, too. Sairy and Tiller bring a measure of "grandparently" comfort to the story, and their (especially Sairy's) musings about life and enlightening stories about her experiences are glimmers of Creech at her best. "Ruby Holler" would no doubt be enjoyed by a middle- to upper-elementary audience, but it certainly isn't the author's best work.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a book that you'll enjoy while you're reading it, and feel good about afterward, June 18, 2006

By 

Jennifer Robinson "Editor of Jen Robinson's B... (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ruby Holler (Paperback)

Ruby Holler is the story of "the trouble twins", 13-year-old Dallas and Florida, who have spent their lives living in the dilapidated Boxton Creek Home. They've had many failed foster parent experiences, some terrifying, some grim, and they are very wary of adults. They remind me a bit of Tony and Tia Malone in Escape to Witch Mountain (another pair of twins who seem unable to keep out of trouble, and who no one seems to want).

An elderly couple asks the twins to come and live with them in their country home in Ruby Holler (named for the red maple trees in the fall), to help with a project. The twins by this point have serious trust issues, and keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. But Tiller and Sairy Morey are different from anyone that the twins have encountered before. Together, the four embark on a series of adventures in the lush, rural Ruby Holler.

This book reminded me a little bit of Louis Sachar's Holes, with the bleakness of the Boxton Creek Home, and the quirkiness of the Moreys (although the main setting is the exact opposite of the setting in Holes). Throughout the book, we learn about the various other homes that the twins have lived in, gradually coming to understand their prickliness and acting out. In parallel, we watch Dallas and Florida, and Sairy and Tiller, gradually changing one another. It's a story about love and patience and second chances, and suspense and adventure, too.

There are many small things to like about the book. I love the way that Sairy and Tiller are with each other, two halves of a whole, with their own unusual endearments. I smiled at the way that Dallas has of painting a positive future with words, even when things seem bleak. And I laughed out loud at some of the wonderful foods cooked up by the Tillers: mission-accomplished-cake, be-nice-to-orphans brownies, and welcome-home-bacon. Even the names of the dreadful owners of the Boxton Creek Home, the Trepids (as in, the reverse of intrepid?) are clever and apt.

This is a book that you'll enjoy while you're reading it, and feel good about afterward. It's suitable for fairly young kids, with lots of dialog, and short chapters. The bleak incidents in Dallas and Florida's past have an exaggerated quality, like a Roald Dahl story, rendering them less disturbing than they might be otherwise. This book won a much-deserved 2002 Carnegie Medal.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on June 17th, 2006.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ruby Holler, July 15, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Ruby Holler (Paperback)

Ruby Holler is an excellent book. I liked it because there is suspense and funny points. It was fun to read about how troublesome the twins, Dallas and Florida, are and how different foster families managed them. I have read other novels by Sharon Creech and I personally think that this is one of her best books ever. I recommend this book to people who like adventure and a bit of mystery.