About This Book

Ruby Lavender and Miss Eula are a pretty good team, for a couple of chicken thieves. What other granddaughter-grandmother duo could successfully drive the getaway car for chickens rescued from a journey to the slaughterhouse, paint a whole house shocking pink, and operate their own personal secret-letter post office?

So, when Miss Eula leaves for Hawaii to visit her new grandbaby, Ruby is sure that she will have a lonely, empty, horrible summer in boring old Halleluia, Mississippi. What happens instead? She makes a new friend, saves the school play, writes plenty of letters to her favorite (and only) grandmother . . . and finally learns to stop blaming herself for her grandfather's death. Not too bad, for a nine-year-old.

Praise for Love, Ruby Lavender

"Wiles has painted a picture of a time long past when communities were small and close-knit, people wrote letters, and chickens escaped only to create havoc at play practice. Yet she has also created a timeless story of life and death, the bond between grandparent and grandchild, and the reality that, regardless, 'life does go on.'" —  Booklist

"The pace is quick and the tone is companionable, and if the final resolution between Ruby and Melba Jane is sentimental and sweet, well, as Ruby would say, sweet garden of peas! It couldn’t end any other way. Recommended." — The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Selected Best Books & Awards for Love, Ruby Lavender

Best Children's Books of the Year, 2002
Children's Book Sense 76 Picks, Spring/Summer 2001
Society of School Librarians International Book Awards, 2001