The Beat on Ruby's Street

by Jenna Zark

Overview

The last thing eleven-year-old Ruby Tabeata expected to happen on her way to a Jack Kerouac reading was to be hauled to the police station.

It's 1958 and Ruby is the opposite of a 1950s stereotype: fierce, funny and strong willed, she is only just starting to chart her course in a family of Beat Generation artists in Greenwich Village. Ruby dreams of meeting famous poets while becoming one herself; instead, she's accused of trying to steal fruit from a local vendor and is forced to live in a children's home.

 

As Ruby struggles to return to family and friends, she learns her only choice is to follow her heart.

 

Join Ruby's journey as she finds unexpected friendships, the courage to rebel against unjust authority and the healing power of art in this inspiring middle-grade novel by Jenna Zark.

 

Please note: narrative language and dialogue was designed to evoke the 1950s. The author does not condone 1950s language in present times.  

Product Details

BN ID:	2940153200293
Publisher:	Dragon Moon Press
Publication date:	06/01/2016
Sold by:	Draft2Digital
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

I am a columnist, lyricist and an award-winning playwright whose plays have been produced in New York and around the country. More information on my play credits are on my Playwriting page.

I first learned about the Beats when my older sister brought me to a play in the Village and shared stories about the poets who walked its streets in the 1950s. Though long gone, their poems and books were in all the book stores and I started to read them. When I was in college, I visited the City Lights bookstore in San Francisco and heard more stories about Beats and the readings they had there.

Years later, my sister and her family moved to Perry Street and I visited them every Friday after work. I began to imagine a young girl, trying to find the poets who were legends in her time. Would she want to be a poet herself? What would life be like for her?

Turned out it was kind of rough—rougher than I thought it would be, and full of surprises. But the story kept growing until it became the Beat Street Series. Now I want to share it with you.