Bridges, Shirin Yim. Ruby's Wish. Illus. Sophie Blackall. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2002.
For a book with such a moving, true and important story behind it, Ruby's Wish certainly had ample opportunity to become a didactic, historical lesson-imparting artifact. And, even had it failed artistically, the story of the first women in China to go to university would certainly still have been interesting. But between the careful use of details in the narrative that quickly sketch a believable and feisty character, and the exquisite gouache paintings, this book becomes something truly remarkable. The illustrations manage to find that delicate balance between expressiveness and restraint; even the use of the colour red to tie the images together is done with a fine sense of balance - dominating some images while only highlighting small pieces of others. And the final page breaks a pattern, both visually and linguistically, revealing that the story is told and written by the granddaughter of Ruby, and showing a double picture frame with an illustration of Ruby as a child in one side and what appears to be a grainy photo of the author's grandmother on the other. Beautiful, moving, and a winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award among others. The story culminates on Chinese New Year (without this being the entire focus of the story) which make it a great choice for this week.
For a book with such a moving, true and important story behind it, Ruby's Wish certainly had ample opportunity to become a didactic, historical lesson-imparting artifact. And, even had it failed artistically, the story of the first women in China to go to university would certainly still have been interesting. But between the careful use of details in the narrative that quickly sketch a believable and feisty character, and the exquisite gouache paintings, this book becomes something truly remarkable. The illustrations manage to find that delicate balance between expressiveness and restraint; even the use of the colour red to tie the images together is done with a fine sense of balance - dominating some images while only highlighting small pieces of others. And the final page breaks a pattern, both visually and linguistically, revealing that the story is told and written by the granddaughter of Ruby, and showing a double picture frame with an illustration of Ruby as a child in one side and what appears to be a grainy photo of the author's grandmother on the other. Beautiful, moving, and a winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award among others. The story culminates on Chinese New Year (without this being the entire focus of the story) which make it a great choice for this week.
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