Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything

With all that Ruby Lu encounters in this book, any child that reads it will definitely have something to relate to. Ruby Lu is a Chinese American who at the start of the book is in the second grade. Her family, which includes her cousin Flying Duck, her aunt and uncle emigrate from China and live at Ruby's house. This causes several language barriers with Chinese and English being spoken. To make matters a little more exciting, Flying Duck is deaf. Throughout this book, Ruby faces swimming lessons, on and off friends, dreaded notes sent home from school, a new dog and worst of all: summer school. This book is fun and includes a guide to Chinese Sign Language.

My five year old daughter who is Chinese/American really enjoyed this book. It was a great for her to find a book about girls that she can relate to. We are looking forward to more books about Ruby Lu.

My eight-year-old daughter and I both love Ruby Lu - she is the funniest character to hit children's literature since Ramona Quimby. Since my daughter is Asian-American, she loves having literary characters that resemble her, so to speak, in their lives. But Ruby Lu is for everyone - so I recommend these books across the board for the 7-9 year old set.

Read this book (and buy it for your kids) because it is well-written, fast-paced, funny and sweet. Ignore any references to multicultural stuff. Ignore people who want to call it an "Asian-American" book. It is first and foremost an addictive read about some hysterical adventures that happen to happen to a Chinese-American 2nd grader. My 6-year old and I whipped through it this afternoon. We couldn't put it down--and when a Kindergartener is entranced by anything for that long, it must be pretty extraordinary. While it introduces some complex themes like immigration and living with the deaf--it is not preachy about them. In kids lives--many things happen that they only partially understand. So in this book, there is no attempt to explain or moralize--which keeps the story from getting bogged down. We just got it from the library today and I'm buying both of Ruby Lu books for my own "Empress of Everything" (and for myself of course, the "Mother of the Empress of Everything"). Many thanks to the author who has written a fabulous book. Please write more soon.

Pick up a copy of "Ruby Lu: Empress of Everything" and turn it over to the back cover. There you will find a blurb by author Megan McDonald that says, "I love Ruby Lu. She's just like an Asian-American Judy Moody!". That's McDonald comparing Lenore Look's character to her own personal creation, and as such I'm sure she's saying this as a very big compliment. As a reader, I feel a little torn by the quote. On the one hand, that line is going to go over very well with parents and grandparents that want to get books for their kids that are at all similar to the ubiquitous Judy Moody. On the other hand, Ruby Lu is so much better a series of books in terms of humor, pathos, and deft writing that I don't like anyone, even an author, equating her with anything less than Ramona. But if it gets `em reading "Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything", I'll shut my trap and applaud with the rest. This second installment of the Ruby Lu series is filled with (as mentioned in the author's acknowledgements), "new, and preferably more harrowing, adventures". The lack of children driving cars (shudder) is just a nice plus. When last we saw Ruby Lu she had just met her new best friend and cousin, Flying Duck, at the airport. Flying Duck and her parents are staying with Ruby's family and the girl just couldn't be happier. Sure, her cousin is still learning the language and she's deaf, but she's also absolutely the coolest kid in school, bar none. This year, however, may turn out to be a difficult one of our heroine. Between getting into fights with former best friend Emma, hiding some very important letters from her teacher, getting into trouble at school, and a myriad of other adventures, Ruby Lu's got a lot on her plate. Fortunately, there's a whole summer ahead of her and she's gonna tackle each and every problem with her usual panache, no matter what. Let's talk characters. I loved the extent to which Ruby Lu adores her new cousin. Of course, sometimes that love manifests itself in sentences like, "Having a cousin from China who was deaf was just as good as having a cousin who had a third eye in the middle of her forehead". Ah well. But what really sets this book apart from others written in the early chapter category is how honest affection between characters is portrayed in a unique and funny way. When you read something along the lines of, "He loved his sister. He loved everything she made. And he drooled heavily over everything he loved", that right there is dead on good writing. It's conservative in its words, but manages a kind of all-ages-wit just the same. Most importantly, you feel the love between the characters. When Ruby sees her mother and just whispers, "I love you, Mom", and gives her a kiss, that's a real little moment. One that makes the book stronger for its inclusion. Let's talk humor now. This book is awash in it. There are humorous misunderstandings that might honestly strike a child as logical. For example, Ruby Lu misunderstands the use of eye tes