Picture Book #1- Intermediate

Ruby Sings the Blues
Written and Illustrated by Niki Daly
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005
Picture Book
Grades 4-6

Ruby is a very excited and loud girl. Everyone gets annoyed with how loud she is, except for the saxophonist and jazz singer who live in her building. One day, they offer to give her singing lessons so that she can control her volume and put her loud words into singing. Ruby loves to sing and becomes a jazz singer. She performs at her school recital and does an amazing job. She is satisfied with her talent, however, every once in a while she likes to check to make sure that her "volume control" still works.

This was a great book about a young girl who found her true talent. Starting as an awkward and loud child who everyone tried to ignore, Ruby turned into an amazing singer. Ruby found that even though most people were annoyed by her, it only took one person to believe in her. This is an important lesson students can take from this book. Also, the pictures in the book are different from most picture books because they are all sketched. This could be an artistic learning opportunity for students. Another unique thing about this book is that some of the sentences were written as if the characters were speaking. The teacher could introduce dialogue to their students and show how Ruby used her dialogue throughout the book.