Review: Hello, My Name Is Ruby

Hello, My Name Is Ruby by Philip C. Stead

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Just okay. I'm expecting so much more from the Steads, both of them, since Amos McGee.

This was a simple parable, with a predictable lesson on trying to make friends who are like you and not like you. There are some fun moments along the way to break up the lesson, but I still felt like I was being preached to and not having an experience.

Nancy was telling me today about the use of the aesthetic term ekstasis from Greek philosophy to talk about a kind of transport or outside-oneself perspective that can be achieved in art. That's a lot of what I think I expect from the best picturebooks, and why I'm usually disappointed by didactic literature--it positions me very deliberately in a specific, pre-decided place.



View all my reviews