I read the book Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech. I LOVE this book! It is an amazing book. It is sad, happy, loving, and interesting. There is also some action in this book along with a little bit of a mystery. Sharon did an excellent job of describing the surroundings in all the scenes. I could picture EVERYTHING. Another thing that she did was she told the book from not just the main characters points of view. She told the points of view from like 5 different people. The main characters in the story Ruby Holler are Dallas Carter and Florida Carter. Dallas and Florida are both twin orphans who have been living in the terrible Boxton Creek Home since they were 1-12 years old. The Boxton Creek Home treated Dallas and Florida terribly along with all the other kids at the Home. There were tons of rules and you had to follow each one or else you got punished. First let me describe Dallas Carter. Dallas is a sweet, caring, kind, smart, helpful, curious boy. Dallas is the type of boy who day dreams all the time. He is always day dreaming. He is always making up different storys in his mind. In almost all of his day dreams or dreams that he has at night, there is a silver bird that speaks to him but never finished its sentences. Now to describe Florida Carter. Florida is a stubborn, nice, impatient, caring, curious, smart girl. Florida is also kind of moody. At one moment she can be happy, then the next minute she could be angry. Dallas and Florida can both get into trouble some times. When they were staying at the Boxton Creek home, the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Trepid, called Dallas and Florida the “trouble twins”. Dallas and Florida are both dynamic characters. In the begging of the book, Dallas and Florida were kind of weary and secretive about eveything after they got invited on a trip. Then towards the end of the book, they opened up and really became more happy as the book went on. Another character in this book that I would like to talk about is Mr. Trepid. Mr. Trepid is selfish, cruel, mean, shallow, grumpy old man. Mr. Trepid makes up all the rules for the Boxton Creek Home (and trust me there are tons of them) and if you break one of the rules, you either have to do manual labor, or stay in a pitch black, musty, gross cellar for a couple of hours. It all depends on what rule that you break. Mr. Trepid tries to steal money from Dallas and Florida Carters new parents but what he doesn't know is that they have set him up. So Mr. Trepid gets tricked and ends up loosing a ton of his money. I would recommend this book to anyone. It is simply an amazing book and I think anyone would like it. I know I sure did.
I think one of the themes for the book Ruby Holler is to be grateful for what you have. Florida and Dallas Carter grew up with barely anything. They didn't have their own home, their own parents, or even their own family. They never got to meet there parents because they were at the Boxton Creek Home ever since they were babies. They had a rough life. Even through all of the years of growing up in the Boxton Creek Home, Dallas and Florida still had each other. They still looked at the bright sides of everything and they tried to make their life as good as it possibly could be. Even if it meant breaking some of the rules every once in a while. I think another theme for the book Ruby Holler is to never judge a book by its cover. Dallas and Florida get invited to go to a trip with an elderly couple named Tiller and Sairy. At first Dallas and Florida thought that Tiller and Sairy were wack jobs because they never punished Dallas and Florida. Since Dallas and Florida were so used to being punished, they never thought that anyone wouldn't punish them. Dallas and Florida also thought that Tiller and Sairy were boring and old people at first, but then they soon realized that Tiller and Sairy are really interesting, caring, kind, lively, loving people. They grew to really like being with Tiller and Sairy as the book went on. I think another theme of this book is just to be nice to everyone and don't be thinking of just yourself all the time. In the book, Mr. Trepid was planning on stealing all Tiller and Sairys money while they were on their trips. Too bad that Tiller and Sairy found out everything from one of their close friends. So they set a couple traps for Mr. Trepid. Mr. Trepid had to go through a mouse trap snapping on his finger, putting his hand into a pile of stinging nettles, a dozen thumbtacks, and some poison ivy. To top it off, Mr. Trepid found some gems (which were fake but he thought was real) and went to go buy a brand new cadillac, and a $9000 watch that he THOUGHT he could pay off with the gems. Too bad that the gems were only worth about $1.99. :P
