Reviews

• What a fantastic read. I read this aloud to my seven year old daughter, who requested that I rate it ten stars out of five and asked if we can preorder the next Ruby Finley book. Ruby, an eleven year old entomologist, finds an unidentifiable bug in her neighborhood, which leads to a big adventure for her and her friends. After she tweets a picture of the bug using her forbidden Twitter account, men from the government show up looking for it. But weird bugs aren’t the only problem. Ruby is a Black girl whose white science teacher thinks her science project about bees is too ambitious. Ruby has been working on this project all summer, and she’s not about to pick one of the easy projects Mrs Bailey insists on, leading to a trip to the principal’s office. (My daughter announced that Mrs Bailey was the bad guy, and she’s not wrong.) And on top of that, something strange is going on at the weird old lady’s house on the block (the kids call her Witchypoo). I’m not going to spoil the ending, but Ruby learns a lot about not judging people (or bugs) too quickly. She and her friends are a realistic group of kids with squabbles and differences, but they care about each other and work out their differences. The tension as the improbable events escalate is fantastic, with plenty of laugh-out-loud passages, but running throughout the book is a glimpse of what it’s like growing up as a Black girl scientist in the US. A new experience for me was that white is not the default here. If a character is Black, Bradford says so, but she also tells you when characters are white. It’s eye-opening for me to realize how unusual that is, and it’s the way it should be. Bradford also gently explores the mostly non-white neighborhood’s relationship to the police through Ruby’s dad’s involvement with the community organization, and discussions about when to involve the police while these crazy events escalate. The twist at the end makes us hopeful that there are more Ruby adventures on the way.

• My eight-year-old niece found this book intriguing and captivating. She told me to tell the author, “Thank you so much, and one day I want to be a writer. I have been writing little stories, but I have writer’s block.” When she told me this, I fell out laughing.😂 Thank you for bringing joy to the children.🥰

• Fun book, meant for school kids but our Mensa book club (all adults) thoroughly enjoyed it

• One of the most enjoyable middle grade books I've read in years! Ruby is a relatable and inspiring protagonist, whip-smart as well as empathic and thoughtful. And the background of family and community taking care of each other is uplifting and deftly executed. Recommended for both young and not-so-young readers!

• My 7 yr old daughters are reading chapter books! We have a wide variety of books by a diverse range of authors, but I'm always searching for fun, curious, smart authentic characters that they can relate to. Ruby Finley was exactly who we were searching for. Science, adventure and humor around the way!

Purchase links