Ruby Holler

Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech
2002
HarperCollins Children’s Books
0060277327 Hardcover - 320pp
HarperTrophy
0060560150 Paperback - 320pp

Booktalk:

Boxton is a tired town – a neglected place that looks as if it is in danger of collapsing in on itself. Here, in this dismal place, is the Boxton Creek Home for Children (also known as orphans). The Home is home to bungling Mr. And Mrs. Trepid, to their overworked assistant, Morgan, and to 13 children, ranging in age from 6 months to 13 years. Dallas and Florida, who are twins, are the eldest and have been there longer than anyone. Dallas, the boy, is quieter, a daydreamer. Florida, the girl, is loud and squirmy.
READ P 14-16 (to No Talking)

Ah, yes, the Boxton Creek Home. Home Sweet Home. Home Sour Home is more like it. Mr. And Mrs. Trepid are middle-aged, cranky, and tired, growing stiff and cold as winter-bound trees. And they have RULES: “Why, if we didn’t have rules these children would eat us alive!” Dallas and Florida have broken every rule the Boxton Creek Home has thrown at them. Many times. They have worn the scratchy “I’ve Been Bad” shirts, shoveled manure, pulled weeds. They have racked up hundreds of hours in the putrid Thinking Corner – the damp, dark, cobwebbed corner of the basement, which reminds them of the cobwebs and spiders of another cellar they had once been locked in. . . All 13 children, but especially Dallas and Florida, dream of escape. . .
Twenty miles from Boxton is Ruby Holler, a lush, green, hidden valley with only 2 cabins nestled in its depths. In the fall all the maple trees turn scarlet red, and all those red leaves look like a million bazillion rubies dangling on the trees – Ruby Holler. When there’s a full moon there, the purest silver light makes everything above and below look soft and rich - like velvet. The birds sit quietly in the trees, and all the other creatures seem to move more gently, as if their feet are padded with cotton. Tiller Morey and his wife, Sairy, have lived so long in Ruby Holler that they know every twist and turn in it, every path, every foxhole, every beehive. Once upon a time they’d had four kids of their own: Buddy, Lucy, Charlie and Rose - all gone now…
Now it just so happens that this very, very nice and respectable couple is looking for two young people to accompany them to the Rutabago River and to Kangadoon during summer vacation. Sairy, the lady, fantasizes about bird watching on an exotic island while her husband, Tiller, wants to take a canoe trip. Yup, Sairy and Tiller are planning separate vacations, each of them intending to take one twin along. They are not going together. Split up? But Dallas and Florida had never been split up! They were two babies who came into the world at the same time. They’d always had each other. They’d always understood each other completely. Who would they be if they were split up? Would they be different when they were alone? Would they think different things? Do different things? Who would they be if they were alone?

The only thing Florida and Dallas feel they can truly depend upon is each other, and at the thought of being separated -- even for a short while -- they panic and make plans to run away from their newfound home. But their plans get changed when they begin to realize that Sairy and Tiller aren't like all the other adults they've known. At least at first, Dallas and Florida have no reason to think that things will be any better for them when the Moreys take them to their home in the Holler. In fact, things might well be worse. But wait! - Dallas and Florida are astonished by their first few days in their new foster home. There is plenty of food, for one thing. They are sleeping, not in a cupboard, but in an airy loft with a view of deep blue mountains; and infractions aren't punished by "whuppings."

AND
They make good gravy. (P 64, from “Dallas made a deep well” to “Sairy said.”)

AND
They’ve got amazing secret recipes: beat-the-blues broccoli and anti-cranky crumpets and getting-used-to-kids-again stew

AND
They are not very good punishers.

AND, they have NO RULES! (P 96-97 from “At breakfast” to “ ‘You goof man,’ Florida said.”)

But maybe, Dallas and Florida think, just maybe, it’s too good to be true…
In the midst of these good things, there is a rotten core as the putrid Trepids contrive to locate, steal, and spend the Morey’s carefully-saved 'understone funds'. And the Trepids know more about the true circumstances of Dallas and Florida's birthdates, and the reason for their bizarre names, than they have previously disclosed . . .

In the dark alley behind the Boxton Creek Home, two men meet. It’s too dark to see either of them really clearly, but when one strikes a match, the light flashes off his gold tooth. “ Here,” he says, passing a wad of money to the other man. “Just keep your lips zipped…”
P 145 (from “Mr. Trepid did not like …” to “as long as money was involved.”)

RESOURCES:

Author's official website
http://www.sharoncreech.com/
Includes teacher’s guide, biography, and information on specific books.

Interview & Review
http://www.bookpage.com/0206bp/sharon_creech.html

Questions w/ Answers from Sharon Creech
http://www.achuka.co.uk/scfile.htm

Interview with Sharon Creech before Ruby Holler Publication
http://www.achuka.co.uk/scsg.htm

Interview with Sharon Creech
http://www2.nypl.org/home/branch/kids/read2002/chats/creech_txt.html

Teacher Resource Site (includes biographical information)
http://www.allen-unwin.com.au/authors/apCreech.asp

Sharon Creech's website at Scholastic
http://www2.scholastic.com/teachers/authorsandbooks/authorstudies/authorhome.jhtml?authorID=2152&collateralID=10836&displayName=Classroom+Activity
Includes a biography and a RealPlayer Video.

The Multnomah County Library Book Discussion Guide for RUBY HOLLER.
http://www.multcolib.org/talk/guides-ruby.html
Includes a summary, discussion questions, and activities.

HarperChildrens Teachers Guide entitled “Teach Creech”.
http://www.harperchildrens.com/webcontent/teachers_guides/pdf/0060277335.pdf

ACTIVITIES:

• Provide or have students draw a map or a route they follow every day. Redraw the map, renaming everyday objects and places with more descriptive ones.

• There are a lot of descriptions of a holler in Ruby Holler. Have a class discussion about what a holler is and in what part of the country they might be found. Are there any geographically unique formations/locations in your neighborhood?

• "We've got some amazing secret recipes," Sairy said. "Beat-the-blues broccoli and anti-cranky crumpets and—" . . .
- Invite students to bring in family recipes, providing them with similarly interesting and descriptive new names.
- Create a cookbook of these, binding by punching two holes in the top or side of the recipe cards and perhaps using a wooden spoon and rubber band to secure them.
- See instructions at http://www.makingbooks.com/elastic.html

• Tiller and Sairy refer to their secret stashes as their “understone funds.”
- Have students decorate containers with tight-fitting lids, such as coffee cans, tennis ball cans, or peanut butter jars, to serve as containers for their own precious collections.
- Paint special capstones to serve as the markers for these.

• Dallas and Florida have “place names”.
- Brainstorm similar names (Georgia, Brittany, Erin, Madison, Paris, Houston, for example).
- Have children learn and share the origins of their own names.

Submitted by: Kathy Krasniewicz - Perrot Library - Old Greenwich

Last updated on: 18 September, 2008

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