Ruby Lu Empress of Everything

Ruby Lu, Brave and True and
Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything by Lenore Look

This Monarch nominee (the second in the series) from 2010 has been compared to Amber Brown, Junie B. Jones, Judy Moody and even Ramona. I have read my share of all of them save Amber Brown and I cannot say that I agree.

Here are reasons why you might try it out anyway. It is a beginning chapter book for kids, primarily girls, who have advanced beyond Henry and Mudge and Cat in the Hat, but are not quite ready for Ramona or Judy. It is most equal to Junie B., First Grader books. The main character is a Chinese-American, second grader – Ruby Lu. In the first book, she becomes a sister to a baby brother Oscar. By the second book, Ruby’s family has offered to share their home with cousins emigrating from China. Ruby’s cousin, Flying Duck, is also in second grade, but she is deaf and only speaks Cantonese. Ruby loves magic and reflective tape and dislikes Chinese school and swimming lessons.

There is much new and unique here. A library or school can never have too many books at this particular reading level either. Although it is about a second-grader, it is definitely third grade reading level. The second book in the series is nearly twice the length of the first otherwise I would suggest the series to younger kids.

Unfortunately, I am not a fan. The behavior of the main character seems younger than her purported almost eight years. Granted there are varying degrees of social, emotional and physical maturity within grades, but I believe Ruby Lu would be more believable younger. In the first book, she watches as her grandmother learns how to drive, decides she has learned how to drive as well, makes herself her own driver’s license and then drives her brother and herself down the block to Chinese school. Not a fan.

I have a hard time pinning down what either book’s main focus was. Baby brother Oscar was present, but not vital. Flying Duck seemed integral, but not fully present. Both books seemed to present a bunch of not necessarily related occurrences that happened during a poorly defined period of time. For instance, Ruby goes on quite a deal about the Plum Tree Club, but they don’t really meet nor do they do anything in the book. I don’t really know who belongs except every child that lives on 20^th Avenue South. In the end it isn’t really essential to the story except she has her magic shows beneath it for the kids of 20^th Avenue South and it makes her feel amazing – it’s the very best thing about 20^th Avenue South next to everything else.

The fact that Ruby’s cousin, Flying Duck, joins her in second grade could carry an entire book. But there isn’t much action that really occurs at school. Yes, we are told that Ruby stops doing her school work in order to do Flying Duck’s school work and therefore both girls end up in summer school. But that’s just it. We are told what happens as a sort of punch line. It is not the action of the story. Ruby is Duck’s “smile buddy” but the reader doesn’t know what the entails throughout the course of the day, just that it makes her important.

Yes, parts of the books are comedic. Ruby wants to pass her eye test BECAUSE she thinks she will get eyeglasses. I am just not entirely sure that the intended readers will find it funny. In fact, I am still not even sure how Ruby ended up needing glasses anyway. She memorized the eye chart. So either she got the answers right and wouldn’t need glasses or she got them wrong and might need to be reexamined. It’s not explained well.

In the end, I simply didn’t enjoy these two books because they seemed more like the stream of consciousness thoughts of a kindergartener or first grader. They needed an author to put them into a focused and coherent whole. I only recommend for when the child has exhausted the other options.