Sunday, March 23, 2008

Sharon Creech- Ruby Holler


Children's novel

The "trouble twins", Dallas and Florida, are living in Boxton Creek Home, an orphanage run by Mr. and Mrs. Trepid. The Trepids are strict and unsympathetic, and Dallas and Florida are punished more than most for breaking the innumerable rules of the house. Over their thirteen years, the twins have been adopted many times, invariably by unwise and abusive adults who return them to the orphanage. One day, the twins are "hired" for a summer by an old couple from Ruby Holler, Tiller and Sairy, as companions for their separate vacations: Florida for Tiller's boat trip down the Rutabago River; Dallas for Sairy's birding expedition to the island of Kangadoon. This will be the first time either of the couples have been separated for "most of their lives". The twins bloom under the freedom and responsibilities given to them in Ruby Holler, but remain suspicious of Tiller and Sairy, as they have been of all adults, especially when they keep making mistakes that would previously have earned them severe punishments. But Tiller and Sairy realise they were just getting good at being parents when their children moved out, so the twins offer them a second chance at life.

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