Ruby's Potty - Hardcover

Paul and Emma Rogers are a husband and wife team with some 40 titles to their name. The Book That Jack Made (The Bodley Head), illustrated by Emma, won the Nottinghamshire Children's Book Award and the Stockport Schools Book Award. Together they have done several other titles. Paul and Emma live in South West France with their four children.

reS-Ruby the mouse portrays the freshness of a child's point of view when she is given a round, pink, plastic potty. It is unclear if she really doesn't know what it's for or if she's conveniently ignoring its purpose, but she loves it and finds all kinds of practical uses for it. "She hides it-She slides it-She puts it on her head. And when it's nearly nighttime, she makes it Rabbit's bed." The pencil-outlined watercolor illustrations extend the busy, satisfying projects in Ruby's day. Mouse creatures with bare human feet appear even odder than the human clothes they wear with allowance for mouse tails; one wonders why Ruby isn't drawn as a human child, since it's obvious to most listeners that indeed she is one. At any rate, in her own time, she discovers the real use of the potty; her parents encourage and support but never pressure her. In the end, they all cheer together.

Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland, ME

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