A Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis -NO

Davis, Kent A Riddle in Ruby, 425 pgs. Green Willow (Harper Collins), 2015. $17.99. Content: Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: PG (gender bending) Violence: PG (fighting scenes)

Ruby is a young girl who is learning to be a thief, natural for a daughter of a pirate. When her father goes missing she goes searching for him, but her city isn’t the colonial Philadelphia we are familiar with, in her world there is an type of magic called Alchemy. She meets a young Lord name Athen, who has a big secret. Also everyone is trying to capture her because Ruby because she has a secret she doesn’t know about, although everyone else seems to.

I have been trying to finish this book for a year, having never engaged with the content. I found the main character boring, the plot stilted and off kilter, and the map cap adventures odd but not in a fun way. I found the world claustrophobic and didn’t want to continue reading this book, especially a very long 425 pages of it. I am not sure if students readers would like it, but I can think of 100 books I would rather recommend.

EL – NO Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.