Ruby Lu, Brave and True - Lenore Look

"And for the first time, Ruby felt that everything was going to be okay. 

And everything was."

In selecting a realistic fiction book to read, I stumbled upon Ruby Lu, Brave and True in Swem Library, picked it up, and didn't look at it again until last week, when I started reading it every night before bed. I couldn't believe that I had never heard of it before I picked it up to read (and now, of course, after reading the chapter in the book - I see it's mentioned!) because it is absolutely fantastic. Not only does it have the potential to introduce children to Chinese culture, but it truly gives you a sneak peek into the life of another girl, living in another city, with another family. And even though Ruby Lu is Chinese and goes to Chinese school and visits her grandparents in Chinatown, she has many similarities to other children in the world. She gets frustrated when her little brother steals the show and attention from her magic tricks, she gets annoyed when the bully calls her dad a "knitting machine," and she has trouble in sharing her room with her cousin Flying Duck. Okay, so maybe most children won't steal their parents car at age 8 to drive to Chinese school and make it there safely, but it was a part of the story that added to how spunky and charismatic Ruby's character is. 

Ruby Lu, Brave and True goes into detail about the average and daily life of Ruby, and introduces us as the reader to a variety of characters, including her little brother, Oscar, who we learn to both love and hate, her best friend at Chinese school (also named Ruby), her poh-poh and gung gung (Grandfather on her mother's side, Grandmother on her mother's side), and many more. One of my favorite aspects of this book was the inclusion of Chinese words along with a glossary in the back of the book. Throughout Ruby Lu, Look includes italicized words, and then, in order to determine what those italicized Chinese words mean, the reader has to look in the glossary in the back. Many of them are able to be determined by context clues, but the fact that there is a "Ruby's Fantastic Glossary and Pronunciation Guide" with 28 words in the back is impressive. Not all of the words are Chinese, however, they are all somehow related to Chinese culture. 

Although Ruby initially struggles in Chinese school, she eventually realizes that sometimes, learning is hard, and that she has to push through it (thanks to a little advice and help from her mom). We see a lot of transformations in Ruby throughout the book, particularly in her emotions toward different people. Ruby struggles in loving Oscar because he is ruining her magic show and stealing the spotlight (and learning Chinese much faster than her), but she doesn't let that get her down. She realizes that Oscar can help her with her magic show, and tries to learn Chinese with the same dedication as him. She turns a negative into a positive. We see this same behavior in her interactions with the bully Christina and with her cousin Flying Duck, which I loved. 

I thought about ways that this book could be discussed, particularly the sections with the bully Christina, because bullying is such an issue in schools these days. I looked for discussion questions for classrooms and found these and was pleasantly surprised by the simplicity of the question suggested: 

Did Christina deserve to be sick? Did being sick change her?

I thought that a question as simple as this one, but also as targeted to the situation could help bring up a broader discussion on bullying in the classroom. As hard as it is to tell children, bullying isn't okay - whether you're the bully or you're being mean back to the bully. We need to strive for good behavior and not threaten each other. I also loved the idea of making a rhyming slogan for each child in your class's name, like Ruby Lu, Brave and True and Flying Duck, Never out of Luck. 

Overall, I loved this book, and it will definitely be in my classroom library - I think that it introduces children properly and appropriately to another culture (without a lot of stereotyping), provides a relatable character for children, and has a fun storyline that will please adults and children alike. This book is a staple.