Ruby Electric

By Theresa Nelson

Book Overview

When the lights go dim and you're sitting in the dark with your popcorn -- that's the magic time that Ruby Miller loves best. And then the music creeps in, and the lion roars, or maybe the moon kid goes fishing....
For Ruby, age twelve and a half, movies are better than real life. The ones she writes, why, those are the best of all. Those stories work out. The dads in her movies always show up when they've promised. The moms don't hold on to secrets. The little brothers don't curl up with sorrow over some missing stuffed animal. All right, it's Ruby's fault he's missing.
But the terrible red-painted graffiti on the concrete riverbanks -- it that her fault too? She's blamed for it. And here she is on a chain gang with two stupid classmates -- the Dumb and Dumber of the Hayes Middle School -- doing community service to make up for it.
If she were writing the script, the setup would be intriguing, the middle exciting, and the ending a complete and happy surprise. She has seven pages ready for Spielberg. But real life keeps interrupting.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689871465
• ISBN13: 9780689871467
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 10 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 7

Customer Reviews

We're gonna rock on to Electric Avenue...

As a reviewer of children's books, I like to check out the competition. In this particular case, "the competition" means other reviewers of children's books. What I tend to do is read the book, read the reviews written about that book, and then make snide little comments to myself about that reviewer's choice of wording. For example, when I finished reading the relatively still unappreciated author Theresa Nelson's best known work, "Ruby Electric" and then read a blurb from Kirkus Reviews that said, "Positively fizzes with emotion", I shook my head. Had I been writing for Kirkus (gales of laughter waft over from the Kirkus editorial board) I would've said "crackles with emotion". Not fizzes. Because you see, this truly is a book where energetic high-energy words are the ones that apply to it best. Nelson has penned a masterful book that could easily have come off as trite or the kind of book that takes cheap shots with the reader's emotions. Instead, this is a story told with humor and compassion about how we come to grips with the truth, even when that truth is doing a tarantella on our heart. All parents try to shield their children from unpleasant things, but Ruby Miller's pretty sure she's been overly shielded all her life. Her father disappeared when she was seven and no one's ever been able to adequately explain why she hasn't seen him since. I mean, sure he's been calling her house and trying to set up dinner with his former wife, son Pete (he's four or five), and daughter Ruby. But he never shows up. Meanwhile, Ruby has to deal with two notorious and bubble-headed juvenile delinquents, one of whom (known mostly as Big Skinny) has been spray painting bright red love poems across the street from her house in her honor. And then there's the fact that Ruby accidentally allowed Pete's beloved stuffed animal Mammook to be carted away by the Salvation Army. Somehow though, Pete's sudden friendship with Big Skinny and Mouse and a project to paint a mural alongside the Los Angeles River coincides with Ruby's discovery of what truly happened with her father. Throw in a talking parrot named Lord Byron and you've a book that can be called "heartwarming" without conjuring up the saccharine images that usually tag-along with that term. Normally in books like this, you get two options. Either the main character is living in a world of fantasy (as Ruby occasionally is) and the whole point of the book is that they must come to grips with the real world OR the book is like "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers and everything in the novel is written in a screenplay format. Nelson opts for neither of these, though admittedly Ruby does write multiple film scripts and screenplays, all of which carry interesting father/daughter relationships. And Nelson has a way with language. There's an offhand quality to the writing that'll once in a while zing you with a particularly smart repetition of ideas or a choice of wording that you wish you had bee

banana girl

I thought this book was one of the most wonderful books I have read and just thought wonderful. I will never forget the awkward kindness of Big Skinny and Mouse and how wonderful they were. This was funnny, exiting, and upmost wonderful! I have to say This book was very hard to put down! Bravo Theresaa Nelson, Bravo!

Don't Miss This Delightful Book

I am an unabashed fan of Theresa Nelson. I have read and loved each of her many fine books, but I believe Ruby Electric is my favorite. Twelve-year-old Ruby is a wonderful, funny, heart-hurting character. Her first trial and error efforts at screenwriting had me laughing out loud, confirmation to me that once again, Nelson has succceeded. People need to understand that the clever format of this book, which includes big chunks written in the style of a screenplay, would not make it a good choice for a read-aloud. So what? It would be a pure shame if the cranky comments of someone who didn't understand this kept a single soul from reading such a delightful story!

Its bittersweet closure offers a measure of hope.

What do a twelve-year-old girl, a missing wooly mammoth, and a run-down riverbed have in common? This may sound like the opening line of a joke, but it's actually the premise of RUBY ELECTRIC, and in this creatively plotted novel, it all ends up making sense. Ruby lives in Los Angeles, the movie-making capital of the world. It's a good place for her to grow up, since she wants more than anything to be a screenwriter. She imagines her life made into a movie, complete with sets and a soundtrack. More often than not, the star of the movie is either Ruby or her dad, who has been out of her life for years. Whether it's a western or a science fiction flick, Ruby's screenplays are her attempts to make sense of her life.Ruby's Los Angeles is not the Beverly Hills of movie stars and directors, though; she, her mom and her younger brother live next to the Los Angeles River, whose banks are strewn with garbage. When Ruby tries to apprehend some local vandals, she gets lumped in with the troublemakers and assigned community service. Some unlikely friendships --- and maybe even a romance or two --- are the surprising result. BR> <br>Ruby's story may not have a Hollywood ending, but its bittersweet closure does offer a measure of hope.<p> --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl