Author: Katherine Applegate
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Star the Elephant by Remy Lai
Waluk by Ana Miralles
Rating:
Summary (proviede by publisher): Ruby’s story picks up a few months after the events of The One and Only Bob. Now living in a wildlife sanctuary, Ruby’s caretaker from the elephant orphanage in Africa where she grew up is visiting. Seeing him again brings back a flood of memories both happy and sad of her life before the circus, and she recounts the time she spent in the African savannah to Ivan and Bob.
My opinion: In each of the prior books in this trilogy, Applegate uses an immediate threat as a method for the protagonist to acknowledge and eventually work through trauma from their past. In Ivan we meet the character of Ruby, a tiny elephant who has lost her whole family and faces a life in captivity. She is an innocent who drives Ivan to act. In Bob we see a Ruby who has started to develop more personality. She's found a family and has begun to prove that she is capable of helping. And finally in this book we have Ruby as a complete character. We see her largely as a sunny, positive "kid" but we also see the trauma of her past. We see how her experiences in Africa have driven a deep fear of change into her. The threat here is less immediate. There is no abusive owner, no natural disaster. Just Ruby and her fears. In this volume Applegate completes her trifecta of the affects of trauma on a character and the ways it causes us to behave. Each book provides something different to the reader and is worth reading in it's own right. As with the other two books, this volume talks about animal cruelty in a plainspoken but never graphic way, so be aware of that if you're intending to give this book to an especially sensitive young reader.
More information: The One and Only Ruby releases today!
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
This seemed a bit younger than the other books, and I have to admit that Bob is my favorite, so I liked that book best!
ReplyDelete