2024-12-24
In High’s middle-grade road-trip novel, a tween searches for her missing mother, who suffers from mental illness and addiction.
Ruby Bean hasn’t seen her mom in a week. This has happened before; 33-year-old Ruthie is afflicted with substance-use and schizo-affective disorders and occasionally disappears from her Georgia home. Luckily, Ruby’s grandparents live nearby, and she can always rely on Aunt Marion, Ruthie’s older sister. Ruby and Marion put their heads together to track where Ruthie has been and where she’s likely headed, leading them to such metropolises as Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Along the way, they run into Ruby’s estranged father (whom she’d never previously met) and people living on the street (Ruthie’s preferred crowd). Two among the unhoused, bubbly Daisy and warmhearted Benny, even join their search. Ruby struggles with wanting her mother back while also craving a more conventional kind of life. Their quest ultimately leads them all to a crime that, unfortunately, Ruthie may have committed. High ably tackles the serious issues depicted herein; Ruby unequivocally loves and worries about her troubled mother, but she’s also fed up with constantly explaining Ruthie’s condition to others. The narrative nevertheless remains firmly upbeat as Ruby, usually a loner, scours the East Coast with her devoted aunt and newly earned friends. Their road trip brims with misadventures (including the tribulations of New York parking) and humor (Daisy and Benny playfully bicker over which rock band sings a certain song). Ruby’s colorful descriptions further enliven the pages, from “green-ink trees” and a “blue ceiling” sky to her affectionate nickname for Marion’s bright-yellow compact car: “Kiki Sunshine.” The novel’s heady mix of realism and buoyancy carries all the way to the extraordinary ending. Dzamesi’s spectacular black-and-white artwork renders such indelible recurring images as Ruby’s big, soulful eyes and Daisy’s even bigger hat.
A young girl’s bumpy life begets an uplifting narrative journey.
