Ruby in the Ruins

Gr 2–4—It's 1945, and World War II is over. After many long nights huddled in bed with her mother during the London Blitz, Ruby and her neighbors celebrate victory and the impending return of many fathers. Ruby has to wait a long time, but finally her dad comes home, changing everything. Ruby's house feels crowded and she doesn't know how to act with this "big sunburned man." Ruby's relationship with her father remains distant until the day she falls playing on bomb rubble. Her father picks her up, carries her home, and isn't a bit mad. Ruby is so overjoyed that she hugs him and cries, "I'm so glad you're back!" With a classic, retro-look to it, this historical picture book is geared toward younger elementary schoolers. The straightforward third-person narrative is brief and printed in an easy to read font, although changes in time and place are occasionally jarring. The ink, gouache, and watercolor illustrations have a diffused Rockwell-esque charm. Hughes's period details and war-torn backdrops utilize color and line well, but they also upstage the stiff people. Much effort is made to convey emotion through facial expressions, but due to wooden features and a certain vacancy in the eyes, the characters never successfully connect to one another. Set against the rubble of war, this slight story seems to imply that although the war was scary, only the city has been truly effected. None of the returned soldiers are depicted as injured either physically or mentally. This rosy view prevents the story from having any real emotional impact.