Ruby Lu's debut

Lenore Look (author) and Anne Wilsdorf (illustrator)
Ruby Lu, Brave and True
Simon and Schuster, 2004

A nautical and expressive someone (Hemingway?) once wrote that the most interesting journey includes a thousand tacks. For this blog, I'm reading in a manner circuitous and non-sequential. The name Ruby Lu has a lovely rhythm and sound to it, rather like Poe's Annabel Lee, and you'll probably remember her from an earlier review of the sequel book here. Ruby Lu, Brave and True doesn't have the same consistent flow of the later book, but there are satisfying moments when everything—actions, dialogue, meaning—does come together. The theme of magic tricks, sleights of hand, and performance run through the book, but these scenes are less captivating than, say, Ruby's clever and reinforcing combination of learning Chinese (Cantonese dialect) and learning to drive. Much of the book seemed like a series of loosely-linked skits for the purpose of introducing characters, added but not joined and in a constant state of flux. The pace and content settle into a comfortable stride with the anticipated arrival of Ruby's cousin, Flying Duck. There is much, including the Glossary, that (in retrospect) takes an embryonic form, waiting for Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything to develop fully.