When Ruby Tried to Grow Candy
by Valerie Fisher
Schwartz & Wade
I want to be the crotchety lady next door who's really just misunderstood, and even knows a trick or two about the right way to plant jelly beans. I'm not far enough along to be the old lady in purple, but I'd settle for the middle-aged misfit who teaches an imaginative girl some unusual gardening techniques.
Ruby's wary of the rickety fence that divides her house from her reclusive neighbor, until her red ball goes over the top. Does she go after it? Why, no, she stays home and there's no story and we all go to bed. Not! Of course she goes after it, and comes face to face with Miss Wysteria, in her green wellies and floppy sunhat in a garden straight out of a '60s acid trip. Teacups grow on trees and playing cards form a shrub in these lush watercolor, ink and mixed-media renderings, where much of the background's out of focus in a happy fusion of color.
Ruby's smitten, even if Miss Wysteria's all business. When's the last time you were warned to "pick eggbeaters before a storm. Otherwise, when the wind blows, the din is deafening."
The book's title tells you what crop Ruby tends, and I'm thrilled to report there's no underlying message or moralizing whatsoever, or at least none that's obvious. Nope, this lighthearted nonsense is just pure, delicious fun.
Rating: *\*\*\
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