Ruby Sings the Blues [Hardcover]

Niki Daly (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

Ruby's voice is SO loud, it's driving everyone crazy! Then Ruby's jazz-playing neighbors come up with a plan to help her control her volume. Ruby finally learns to sing to her heart's content...without everyone needing earplugs! (Well, most of the time.) The perfect book-fun, celebratory, and maybe even a little helpful-for any family with its own irrepressible Ruby.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

PreS-Gr. 2. Ruby's voice is so loud that her neighbors call her "Boom-box," and "Loud-mouth," and the kids at school won't play with her. Feeling silenced and criticized, Ruby falls into a funk until her cool, jazz musician neighbors teach her to harness her amazing vocal chords. Soon Ruby is singing the blues and taking her school auditorium by storm. Daly tells a simple story of a child learning to focus and develop her talents. The nicely paced, rhythmic text will read well to a crowd, and the lyrical descriptions of what Ruby learns to do ("sing sharp, zooming notes like the sounds of the city . . and gentle breathy notes like a cool evening breeze") will introduce children to the musicianship and emotion singers bring to their work. Daly's mixed-media illustrations showcase a cast of urban hipsters wearing patterned outfits that extend the rhythms in the story, and present raucous scenes of folks in Ruby's multicultural neighborhood grooving to tunes that celebrate music's power to bring people together. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Niki Daly is the author and illustrator of numerous picture books, including Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky, a New York Times Best Illustrated book. He lives in Capetown, South Africa.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books (May 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582349959
• ISBN-13: 978-1582349954
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 10.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,764,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can You Hear Me Now?, April 15, 2006

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ruby Sings the Blues (Hardcover)

Ruby is an apealing girl with a very loud voice. It's so loud, in fact, that her neighbors call her names like "Loud-mouth" and "Boom-box." When she talks, people cover their ears, animals run away, and a palm tree bends under the force of her decibels. It all sounds like trouble for Ruby. However, when a jazz saxophonist and a vocalist hear her, they have just one name for her: "Awesome!"

It's a promising beginning, even though it may seem obvious that Ruby's voice will eventually swing with the musicians. Niki Daly's computer-enhanced pencil and ballpoint pen illustrations are whimsically stylish: People wear 1950's sci-fi style clothes that remind one of rayon bowling shirts and Ruby's parents collect that era's futurist objects d'art. (These latter include an elephant shaped planter, huge scrawled paintings, and Calder-like mobiles.) Other illustrations color ordinary objects with unusual computer-generated hues, shown against a minimalist ackground. Visually, it's a treat.

Unfortunately, Daly the author never adequately explains why Ruby is so loud. Her parents successfully ask her to quiet down, although her father wonders how long Ruby can stay at that level. Sure enough, she disturbs everyone in class the next day, and the teacher tells her to pretend that her clothes buttons are volume knobs. This works until she goes outside, turns up the volume, and alienates all her friends. We know that Ruby can be quieter, and we know she's unhappy that people shun her-so why is Ruby so loud? Perhaps it's just simpler and safer to ignore the issue, but it's also gives the book a somewhat contrived feeling

Fortunately, prize-winning illustrator Daly rescues her story with a happy ending and more superb pictures. As expected, the saxophonist and the singer come to Ruby's rescue. Zelda--all 1930-s chic with a 1950's beatnik sensibility--teaches Ruby to modulate her tone and her volume, and to sing with feeling. In a joyous two=page spread, Daly shows the whole neighborhood grooving to Ruby's blues. Notes waft through the air, happy people and animals dance on the street, and even distant buildings get animated, peering through an alley to get a better look at this good, loud party. The now acceptable Ruby blows them away at a school concert and she regains the goodwill of friends and neighbors, Still, we're told that Ruby still talks very loud sometimes, "just to check that her volume control is still working." Did she really believe the teacher's volume button ploy? Because of these narrative problems, "Ruby" is probably more suitable for younger rather than older elementary school-age kids, but Daly's illustrations and sense of style are impeccable.

4.0 out of 5 stars Book is what I wanted but it has a library tag on it, December 18, 2011

By 

momof2 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ruby Sings the Blues (Hardcover)

The book is what I wanted and in good condition, but it had library tags on it and it made me nervous that it was possibly stolen from a library, hope not.

5.0 out of 5 stars Adorable book!, July 6, 2008

By 

A. Sellers "dicia" (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ruby Sings the Blues (Hardcover)

I loved this book and so did my 2, 3 & 5 year olds when I read it to them. It was fun and encouraging.