| Booktalk
#1
Ruby lives with her family
in a lumber camp in Vermont in the early part of the 1900s. She is
loves the life. When it is decided that she will go to school in
town, she is nervous at first but the thought of learning to read delights
her. As she learns, she returns to the camp and plays school with
her brothers and sisters and tries to teach them what she has learned.
Her father is so impressed that he tells Ruby that he wants her to be a
teacher some day. But life does not always turn out as we plan.
When her father is killed in a logging accident, Ruby and her family must
move to town and life becomes a challenge as she must give up school to
care for her siblings. Will Ruby ever find a way to continue her
education? Will she become a teacher?
Booktalk #2
Ruby loved being with her Pa,
he always smelled of Spruce and Fir. Ruby wants to work at the lumber
camp with her Pa when she grows up. But Pa says he wants his children
to be smarter than he is. He wants Ruby to go to school and says
that Ruby would make a great teacher. When Pa is killed saving another
man’s life Ruby’s whole world is turned upside down. The family moves
into town where some of Ruby’s 10 brothers and sisters can attend school
with her. But when Ma takes a job cooking at the lumber camp Ruby
has to drop out of school to take care of the youngest children.
With all this work Ruby is hungry for books to read and time to read them.
Will Ruby find a way to get books to read? After all the changes
in Ruby’s life will she have the opportunity to become a teacher like Pa
wanted? Pick up Lumber Camp Library by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock to
find out what happens to Ruby and her family. (Beth Lindsay, Senior
Librarian, Youth Services, South County Regional Library blindsay@leegov.com,
Sunshine State list 2003-2004 Grades 3-5)
Booktalk #3
Imagine being
the oldest of eleven children. Your father is a logger, and your mother
takes care of the family. You are a smart daughter who spends her time
teaching the others to read and write. Even your father learns how to write
his name because you teach so well. One day another logger, Jim, comes
to tell all of you that your father has drowned in an accident. Now you’re
never get to finish school, much less become a teacher. Your mother is
forced to move to town and take in washing just so you and your brothers
and sisters have food and a roof over your head. Life is so frustrating.
What will you do?
Prepared
by: Celeste R. Stone for The
South Carolina Children's Book Award nominees 2005
Booktalk
#4
What is your favorite thing to do? How would you feel if someone
told you they were sorry, but you wouldn’t have the opportunity to do that
anymore?
That’s what happens to Ruby. Ruby loves to read and the only source
for books she has is the small school that she rides her horse to each
day. Ruby looses her father in a logging accident and learns she
has to stay home and take care of her 10 brothers and sisters. Her
father is gone and so is her connection for reading. Ruby looks for
ways to get books and discovers a true treasure in a special friend.
Read Lumber Camp Library by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock to find out about Ruby’s
treasure. Will she have books to read? Will she be happy again?
(Jamie Gaines, jamiegaines@anderson5.net,
New Prospect Elementary School) |
