Sonya Sones writes an emotional story that will have you empathizing with the main character (Ruby) right away, in her book: One of those hideous books where he mother dies.


Pg. 9

“My Earliest Memory

I was just about to turn four.
My aunt Duffy told me she was going to give me
a very special present for my birthday.
She said she was going to take me to see my daddy.
But only if I promised not to tell my mommy.

I remember the lights going down, the film coming on,
and there still being no sign of him.
‘But where is he?’ I demanded to know,
on the verge of a major meltdown.

Aunt Duffy put her arm around me,
then pointed to this enormous face up on the movie screen
and said, ‘There he is, Ruby.

That’s your daddy.’ ”


Fifteen-year-old Ruby’s dad (Whip Logan) is an exceedingly famous actor. Everyone is a fan, except Ruby. She always harbored a grudge against her father. Ruby never forgave him for leaving her mom before she was born. She assumed Whip was a stupid, self-centered movie star because of her mother’s constant criticisms of him. Things aren’t always, as they seem. Part of growing up is making your own judgments instead of relying on the judgments of others. Ruby grows and changes when she realizes this.

Ruby feels bitter about the fact that her dad never visited her. After Ruby’s mom dies, Ruby is forced to move from her cozy, familiar home in Massachusetts to California in order to go live with Whip; she’s not exactly thrilled. Depressed? Who? Ruby?

Ruby becomes annoyed that Whip acts like he would love to be a part of her life so suddenly, even though he’s made no previous effort. She puts up walls because she thinks that because Whip never visited, he must not love her. Ruby gradually learns to accept and love her father. At first, she blames him for her problems. She blames him for being a movie star. She blames him for showing up everywhere she goes. She blames him for taking her away from her friends. She blames him for her lack of a social life at her new school. She blames him for all of her unhappiness. But as time passes, she realizes her father isn’t all bad. She learns that you can’t judge a book by its cover. She



realizes that Whip cares about her more than she had thought. She adjusts, and sees that she can belong in California, just as she belonged in Massachusetts.

Most of the plot action happens toward the end of the book. The story itself is fairly uneventful, it was more about emotions than plot. The story depicts a wide variety of feelings including: disappointment, sadness, joy, and surprise.

The book follows Ruby through a tough long-distance relationship with her boyfriend and best friend, as well as following her though the difficulty of starting a new school. But, the main conflict of the book surrounds Ruby’s relationship with her father.

The book was enjoyable, but light. It had parts that were quite humorous.
Pg. 16
“Airplane Lunch

They
call
this

chicken?”


The story was good but not great, until the end, which shocked me with the author’s insights on emotions. The book is written in verse but before I got to the end, I hadn’t really thought of the writing as particularly poetic. The poems towards the end are amazingly sad and expressive of real emotions. the poems made me sad, just reading them. I urge any readers to continue the whole way through. It’s a relatively short book; it’s worth reading, to be able to understand the emotion behind the poems in the conclusion.