Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
When Ruby retrieves her ball from an eccentric neighbor's yard, she meets the blustery Miss Wysterious, who barks such expletives as "Jumping jelly beans!" and "Blazing butterscotch!" With Mary Poppins snappishness, the mysterious Wysterious hands Ruby some jelly beans and instructs her to plant them, over the course of some weeks dishing out gardening advice: "Buttons must be picked early, unless you need them the size of frying pans! And remember, with shoes always plant a pair." In fact, a tree in the woman's yard drips with buttons, another with all-left shoes, etc. Even more fantastical than the plot, Fisher's (Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears) mixed-media art belongs to the love-it-or-hate-it genus. Flat, cut-paper images-of the cartooned characters, highly patterned foliage, trees and more, all rendered in different styles-stand up within intricately composed sets, amid three-dimensional candies, miniature gardening tools and other props. The complexity of each assemblage commands admiration. However, not everything emerges successfully from this melange: background images blur, sometimes almost past recognition. The alternate universe Ruby discovers is hazily developed also. To Ruby's surprised delight, peppermints and gumdrops blossom forth. What can readers take away? Gather ye peppermint rosebuds? Blossom wherever you're planted? Or, as Miss Wysterious says, "If you're in doubt, nothing will sprout"-in other words, believe and magical things will happen, a nebulous and familiar message that gets a literal interpretation here. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Ruby Louise Hawthorn, a prim little girl living on a "perfectly perfect" street, climbs her fence to retrieve an errant ball and meets eccentric Miss Wysterious, who grows teacups, eggbeaters, shoes, and other unusual items in her garden. The woman shows Ruby how to plant candy-actually, she doesn't tell her, she barks, just as she also snarls, grumbles, bellows, snaps, chuckles, and only once in the book, says. At any rate, the candy grows profusely, and Ruby knows "just what to do" with her crop of peppermint blossoms and lollipops. The cartoon illustrations show her changing from a super-neat pony-tailed child wearing a little blue dress with puffed sleeves and a Peter Pan collar to a normally untidy child in jeans and sneakers and a T-shirt, tending her garden. Ruby and Miss Wysterious are drawn in what appears to be pen-and-ink with precise outlines and set against a background that is green, almost junglelike, slightly blurry, a mysterious garden where anything could happen. The story is very slight and does not live up to its Mary Poppins-ish promise; children will be delighted with the idea of being able to plant jellybeans and grow a candy crop, but there is no suspense, and it is unlikely that anyone will want to know what happens next.-Marian Drabkin, formerly at Richmond Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Ruby learns that her neighbor, mysterious Miss Wysterious, is a magical gardener who grows teacup trees and eggbeater bushes. Soon Ruby's daily visits include tending her own candy plants. The text offers little insight into the magic other than Miss Wysterious's scolding "If you're in doubt, nothing will sprout." Many backgrounds in the mixed-media illustrations are intentionally (though inexplicably) blurry. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
What kid wouldn't love the idea of growing candy? When Ruby's weird and mysterious neighbor, Miss Wysterious, tells her she can grow anything she likes, Ruby immediately says, "Candy!" "Jumping jelly beans," says Miss Wysterious, "I love candy!" and gives her a handful to plant. Ruby plants lemon sours, gumdrops and butterscotch; she waters and waters and voilà--up sprouts oodles of candy. Though the idea is amusing, the odd illustrations are far less intriguing. Paper cutouts of Ruby and Miss Wysterious are imposed against blurry photographic backgrounds. The combination appears mismatched and lacks charm, though some details are fun: Miss Mysterious wears frog boots and grows teacups, egg beaters and playing cards; the candy collage is photo-realistic. Ruby may have a sweet tooth and a green thumb, but unfortunately the result is less appealing than either. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
