Ruby Lee and Me

Gr 3-6--After a tragic accident leaves her younger sister Robin hospitalized, 12-year-old Sarah must move in with her grandparents. Miss Irene is Granny's neighbor and friend, and her granddaughter Ruby Lee has been Sarah's best friend since she can remember. The trouble is, Sarah is white and Ruby Lee is black--and it's 1969 in North Carolina. The local school will be integrated this year, and the first black teacher has been hired. Tension is high in the tiny town of Shady Creek. Forced to leave her home and start over on her grandparents' farm, Sarah must come to grips with her guilt about her sister, her anger and confusion about Ruby Lee, and the uncertainty of relationships among whites and blacks in the rural South. Balancing the heavier topics are home-style recipes, strong storytelling, and Southern charm, which will engage younger middle grade readers. The characters are well developed and the historical setting realistic. VERDICT Tenderly told, this appealing story explores racial tensions during a key moment of the civil rights movement.--Carol Connor, Cincinnati Public Schools, OH

It is the summer of 1969, and things couldn't seem worse to 12-year-old Sarah. Her six-year-old sister, Robin, has been seriously injured in a car accident that Sarah is certain was her fault (she had been reading while babysitting Robin), and Sarah called her best friend, Ruby Lee, the worst thing you can call a black person. Sarah's inner struggles take place against the background of integration in a rural North Carolina community; Hitchcock (The Ballad of Jessie Pearl) depicts her guilt, anger, and grief with credibility and the important people in her life in sympathetic, fully dimensional fashion. The contrast between Ruby Lee and Sarah's friendship and that of the girls' grandmothers effectively reflects the differences in their generations' approach to race relations; the uneasiness created by the arrival of the elementary school's first black teacher, Mrs. Smyre, is also treated realistically. While Mrs. Smyre is a little too good to be true, an endnote explains the roots of the book are in the author's connection to just such a teacher. Ages 8-12. Agent: Deborah Warren, East West Literary Agency. (Jan.)