Goofy, playful, and mischievous Ruby is fully dimensional, as she has shown her bravery during the many hardships of her young life. An elephant glossary and Castelao’s charming, illustrated guide to elephant body language help immerse readers in Ruby’s world. The unexpected arrival of someone from Ruby’s past life on the savanna revives memories both warmly nostalgic and deeply traumatic. Ruby was born in an unspecified part of Africa, later ending up on display in the mall, where she met Ivan, Bob, and Julia. Luckily, she can confide in her Uncle Ivan, who is next door in Gorilla World, and Uncle Bob, the dog who lives nearby with human friend Julia. She’s apprehensive about her Tuskday, a rite of passage for young elephants when she’ll give a speech in front of the rest of the herd. In this follow-up to 2020’s The One and Only Bob, Ruby the elephant is still living at Wildworld Zoological Park and Sanctuary. Black-and-white spot art reinforces the swamp setting.Īn original, highly engaging story about the power of friendship, family curses and blessings-and what it means to be a hero. With their assorted curses, Blue’s highly eccentric family members add local color and diversion. Oozing magical realism, the plot alternates between pessimistic Blue and optimistic Tumble with occasional dark humor from Munch. As the 100-year red moon appears and every cursed Montgomery hopes to be the one who, according to family legend, will “travel into the swamp and claim a great new fate” from an alligator named Munch, Blue and Tumble bravely head into the swamp to change everything.

When Tumble learns about Blue’s losing curse, she tries to prove he can be a winner even as he staunchly defends her hero status. Harboring a secret and obsessed with her hero, Maximal Star, and his book, How to Hero Every Day, Tumble rescues people with disastrous results. Then Tumble Wilson, also 12 and white but a girl, moves to town.

When Blue’s father unexpectedly abandons him in Murky Branch, Georgia, to stay with Granny Eve, Blue’s devastated. It runs in the family: half the Montgomerys suffer some sort of curse. Two friends, both seemingly cursed, join forces to alter their destinies.īlue Montgomery, a 12-year-old white boy, has a lifelong history of losing at everything he tries.

Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley