Middle-Grade Review: Ruby Lee and Me

Last month, while waiting for my book group selection to become available, I needed a quick book to weave between books and wanted to stay on my story month theme. I've found the perfect choice on my TBR shelves (since 2016!): Ruby Lee and Me, a temporary novel by Shannon Hitchcock. It's a rich and warm story that blends the family drama, friendship and racial tensions of 1960s Southern integration.

Sarah, 12, is assigned to take care of her younger sister Robin on a summer's day in North Carolina in 1969, but becomes distracted by the book she is reading. Robin runs down the street and gets hit by a car. She was badly injured and Sara and her family were devastated. Sara goes to her grandparents' farm while her parents spend every day in the hospital with Robin. No one knows that Sarah blames herself and is overcome with guilt for what happened. But living on the farm with her grandparents in the summer is always comforting to her, and she's particularly excited to see her friend Rubin, a black girl who lives with her grandmother next door to the farm. Sarah notes that while her grandmothers are good friends at home, they rarely talk to each other when they're in town. Now, the big news in town is that Sarah School will be onboarded for the first time this fall, with its first African American teacher. Sarah is nervous about going to a new school, but reassures her friend Ruby will be around her... until Ruby tells her they can't be friends at school, only at home, like hers Grandmother tired. Their different attitudes create a rift between the two girls and Sarah's summer is only made worse as she worries about Robin and doesn't even have a boyfriend to talk to anymore.

I loved this sweet story with so much emotional complexity intertwined in it. Poor Sara has so many worries about a little girl, and the novel shows how much she (and consequently the other children) thinks about these difficult subjects that many adults would not bother. The author describes a beautiful picture of farm life, unlike anything that went wrong that summer. He explains in an author's note that Sarah's experiences are based on her childhood in North Carolina in 1967, when her sister was injured and schools were integrated, although she was younger than Sarah at the time. Also includes some of her photos on the back. Maybe that's why this story is so touching and authentic, with characters that really feel it. I was really having a great time with Sarah and Rubin and I was looking for them (and the town) to calm things down.

207 pages, scholastic

This book is part of the following Reading Challenges 2022 :

Mount TBR Challenge (Bonus points since this has sat on my shelf for 6 years?)

The Challenge of Reading the Alphabet - R

The Challenge of Reading Diversity

The Challenge of Literary Escape - North Carolina

Discovery: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My rating is my opinion and not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

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