Ruby Holler

by Sharon Creech

Overview

From Sharon Creech, the Newbery Medal winning author of Walk Two Moons, comes a heartwarming adventure about finding family, and a home, when you least expect it.

Ruby Holler is a Carnegie Medal-winning novel, and with its quirky protagonists and exciting journey, captures the imaginations of readers of all ages.  

Brother and sister Dallas and Florida are the “trouble twins.” In their short thirteen years, they’ve passed through countless foster homes, only to return to their dreary orphanage, Boxton Creek Home.

Run by the Trepids, a greedy and strict couple, Boxton Creek seems impossible to escape. When Mr. Trepid informs the twins that they’ll be helping old Tiller and Sairy Morey go on separate adventures, Dallas and Florida are suspicious.

As the twins adjust to the natural beauty of the outdoors, help the Tillers prepare for their adventures, and foil a robbery, their ultimate search for freedom leads them home to Ruby Holler.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060560157
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/24/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	76,068
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.62(h) x 0.58(d)
Lexile:	660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Sharon Creech has written twenty-one books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler.

Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband now live in Maine, “lured there by our grandchildren,” Creech says.

www.sharoncreech.com

Hometown:

Pennington, New Jersey

Date of Birth:

July 29, 1945

Place of Birth:

Cleveland, Ohio

Education:

B.A., Hiram College, 1967; M.A., George Mason University, 1978

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

The Silver Bird

Dallas leaned far out of the window, his eyes fixed on a bird flying lazily in the distance. Sun slanted through the clouds above, as if a spotlight were aimed on the bird.

A silver bird, Dallas thought. A magical silver bird.

The bird turned suddenly, veering south over the small town of Boxton, toward the faded yellow building and the window from which Dallas leaned. Dallas stretched his arm out. “Here!” he called. “Over here!”

The bird swooped toward him and then rose up over the building, high, high into the air, over the alley and the train tracks and the dried-up creek. Dallas watched it rise on the air currents over one brown hill and then another, until it disappeared.

He tried to follow it in his mind. He imagined it flying on until it spied a narrow green valley, a scooped-out basin with a creek looping and winding its way through the center. He pictured it swooping down from the sky into this basin in the hills, to this place where cool breezes drifted through the trees, and where the creek was so clear that every stone on its bottom was visible.

Maybe the silver bird had flown home.

“Get out of that window!” a voice shouted from below. “No leaning out of windows!”

Dallas leaned a little farther out and called down to Mr. Trepid. “Did you see that silver bird?”

“Get out of that window, or you're going to join your sister down here pulling weeds,” Mr. Trepid threatened.

Dallas spotted his sister, Florida, inching her way along the sidewalk, wrenching clumps of weeds and grass and dirt from the ground.

“Putrid weeds,” Florida snarled,heaving a clod of dirt over her shoulder.

Dallas watched as the clod landed on Mr. Trepid's back and as the man scuttled over to Florida and whacked her on the head. Dallas wished the silver bird would return and snare Mr. Trepid and carry him high up over the town and then drop him, splat, in the middle...

Ruby Holler. Copyright © by Sharon Creech. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Table of Contents

1.	The Silver Bird	1
2.	The Boxton Creek Home	4
3.	Ruby Holler	12
4.	Mush	14
5.	Thinking Corners	21
6.	The Opportunity	25
7.	Doubts	31
8.	Hansel and Gretel	34
9.	The God	41
10.	The Egg	43
11.	The Grump	48
12.	Work	50
13.	Gravy	54
14.	Wood	67
15.	Conversations in the Night	73
16.	The Axe	81
17.	The Rocker	86
18.	The Trepids	90
19.	Understone Funds	95
20.	Through the Holler	101
21.	Lost and Found	105
22.	A Trip to Boxton	112
23.	Ready	120
24.	Tiller and Sairy	127
25.	The Holler at Night	133
26.	Shack Talk	145
27.	Trials	148
28.	Mrs. Trepid	157
29.	Decisions	161
30.	Nightmares	166
31.	Medicine	168
32.	Paddling and Hiking	172
33.	Z's Report	179
34.	Bearings	184
35.	Stiff	188
36.	A Long Chain	192
37.	Word Pictures	195
38.	Surveying	197
39.	The Worrywarts	199
40.	Babies in the Box	206
41.	Shopping	212
42.	Dorkhead	218
43.	Loops	220
44.	Progress	224
45.	The Rock	226
46.	Stones in the Holler	229
47.	Running	231
48.	More Shopping	232
49.	Underwater	239
50.	The Feeling	241
51.	Z	247
52.	The One-Log Raft	251
53.	The Dunces	253
54.	Slow Motion	257
55.	On the Road	259
56.	On the River	264
57.	The Soggy Heart	268
58.	Preparations	271
59.	Investments	275
60.	Hospital Talk	278
61.	Mr. Trepid's Adventure	282
62.	Jewels	287
63.	Mission-Accomplished Cake	291
64.	Appraisals	294
65.	Conversations in the Night	298
66.	Dreams	306

Editorial Reviews

“This poignant story evokes a feeling as welcoming as fresh-baked bread.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An altogether engaging outing.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From the Publisher

Winner of the UK's 2003 Carnegie Medal

The Barnes & Noble Review
From Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech comes a heartwarming tale about second chances, unconditional love, and the true meaning of family. With wry humor, a quirky cast of characters, and a setting that is as magical as it is beautiful, Creech examines what happens when two pairs of very different people come together to form a family.

Ruby Holler is the name of a wondrous place that an older couple named Tiller and Sairy call home. However, "home" for Dallas and Florida, twin orphans who are known for their troublemaking tendencies, is the nearby Boxton Creek Home, a place run by a crusty couple with a very long list of stringent rules. The twins have managed to leave the orphanage a few times when foster families have taken them in, but things never seem to work out, and they always get sent back. With each return, their lives become more restricted and their hopes for a successful adoption dim.

They have no reason to think that things will be any different when Tiller and Sairy adopt them and take them to their home in the Holler. In fact, things might well be worse, since Sairy and Tiller are planning separate vacations, each of them intending to take a twin along. 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.

Creech enriches her story with hidden treasures, discovered secrets, and several adventures. Her characters are likable though flawed, and their ever-changing emotions are subtly -- and often humorously -- conveyed. But as the story unfolds, it soon becomes clear that the most important element of all is the magic that's afoot in Ruby Holler -- a wondrous and powerful magic called love. (Beth Amos)

bn.com

The characters introduced here two abandoned children, their villainous guardians and a kindly country couple might have stepped out of a Dickens novel, but as Creech (Love that Dog) probes beneath their facades, the characters grow more complex than classic archetypes. Florida and her brother Dallas, raised in an orphanage run by the cold-hearted Trepids, rely on each other rather than grownups for support. They become suspicious when Mr. Trepid informs them that they are going to a place called Ruby Holler to accompany old Mr. and Mrs. Morey on separate vacations. Florida is to be Mr. Tiller Morey's companion on a canoe trip; Dallas is to help Mrs. Sairy Morey hunt down an elusive bird. Readying for the trips proves to be a journey in itself as the Moreys, Florida and Dallas make discoveries about one another as well as themselves in a soothing rural environment. This poignant story evokes a feeling as welcoming as fresh-baked bread. The slow evolution of the siblings who are no angels parallels the gradual building of mutual trust for the Moreys. The novel celebrates the healing effects of love and compassion. Although conflicts emerge, readers will have little doubt that all will end well for the children and the grandparently Moreys. Ages 8-12. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 4-6-Orphaned twins Dallas and Florida have resigned themselves to living within the confines of the Boxton Creek Home for Children. It's a loveless existence. The Trepids, owners and "rule enforcers" of the home, target the brother and sister at every opportunity and all of the prospective adoptive parents have returned them to the orphanage. Eventually the children are sent to act as temporary companions to an eccentric older couple who live in Ruby Holler, and there they find love and acceptance. While the plot is predictable, the story weaves in an interesting mix of mystery, adventure, and humor, along with age-old and modern problems. Creech does a fine job of developing the unique personalities and the sibling relationship, and the children's defense mechanisms (Dallas's dreamy escapism and Florida's aggression) figure prominently in the interplay among the characters. The text is lively and descriptive with an authentic, if somewhat mystical, rural ambience. This entertaining read from a first-rate author will not disappoint Creech's many fans.-Robyn Ryan Vandenbroek, Elgin Court Public School, St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

The trouble twins, Dallas and Florida, are given the opportunity to take a three-month vacation from the horrible orphanage that has been home. An elderly couple, Sairy and Tiller of Ruby Holler, wants help. Tiller would like to build a boat and explore the river Rutabago with Florida, while Sairy dreams of visiting far-off Kangadoon to see a red-tailed rocking bird, but needs Dallas's assistance. Dreamy Dallas and Feisty Florida have always counted on each other and dread parting. As the twins naturally strew trouble wherever they go, they also reveal the horrors of their past-but gradually, all four characters draw together. The charm of Sairy's acceptance of whatever awful thing the twins do is matched by her desire to see what she's like when Tiller isn't there. Despite ominous signs that the separation of both pairs may be dire, they persist. Adding tension, Mr. and Mrs. Trepid, who run the nursing home, hire Z (their only Ruby Holler neighbor) to discover the buried funds that will finance the upcoming expeditions. Tiller, is a grumbler, but it only hides his soft heart. Dallas and Florida both have a hard time believing that anywhere in the universe can be as wonderful as Ruby Holler, and they try to remain committed to their original plan to catch the freight train and escape. Various tidbits about the origins of the twins tumble into the plot in haphazard ways, developing that mystery. Such charm and humor is encapsulated in this romp with its melodramatic elements of treasure and orphans, that it feels perfectly reasonable to want it to go on and see what happens next. Creech ends with the readers more in the know than the characters concerned, making for a slightly unsatisfyingfinish. Still: an altogether engaging outing. (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews