The sassy title tells readers right away that this book is NOT like one of those hideous books where the mother dies, even if fifteen-year-old Ruby's mom has recently succumbed to cancer. Sonya Sones has made a reputation for engrossing and emotionally valid verse novels with her two previous books, Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy and What My Mother Doesn't Know, and here she has the good sense to avoid the platitudes of the tearjerker, focusing not on the melodrama of death but on the grieving process of a feisty teen--sometimes even with humor.

Ruby has turned her grief into anger at her father: because he divorced her mother before she was born, because she has had to leave her best friend Lizzie and her boyfriend Ray to come to Los Angeles to live with him, and because he is Whip Logan, a very famous and rich movie star. She turns a cold shoulder to all his gentle and persistent attempts to relate to her, sneers at the glamour of his Beverly Hills mansion and famous friends, and spends most of her time writing desperate emails to Lizzie and Ray, and her dead mother, from her Dream Bedroom. The friendship of Max, Whip's live-in assistant/personal trainer, is some comfort, and Ruby has a harder and harder time keeping her sneer as Whip ups the ante, from rides in his classic vintage cars, to shopping trips for anything she wants, to weekends in Las Vegas and Catalina and a party where Eminem is the guest of honor. But an earthquake leads to a surprising revelation that changes everything for Ruby, in an enormously satisfying ending. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10–In one- to two-page breezy poetic prose-style entries, 15-year-old Ruby Milliken describes her flight from Boston to California and her gradual adjustment to life with her estranged movie-star father following her mother's death. E-mails to her best friend, her boyfriend, and her mother ("in heaven") and outpourings of her innermost thoughts display her overwhelming unhappiness and feelings of isolation, loss, and grief ("…most days,/I wander around Lakewood feeling invisible./Like I'm just a speck of dust/floating in the air/that can only be seen/when a shaft of light hits it"). Ruby's affable personality is evident in her humorous quips and clever wordplays. Her depth of character is revealed through her honest admissions, poignant revelations, and sensitive insights. This is not just another one of those gimmicky novels written in poetry. It's solid and well written, and Sones has a lot to say about the importance of carefully assessing people and situations and about opening the door to one's own happiness. Despite several predictable particulars of plot, Ruby's story is gripping, enjoyable, and memorable.–Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 7-12. After the death of her mother, high-schooler Ruby is sent from Boston to L.A. to live with the father she has never met: "He's such a scumbag / that he divorced my mother / before I was even born." The "scumbag" is Whip Logan, a famous movie actor, but Ruby is too angry to be impressed; at the airport she wonders whether to "ask him for his autograph, / or kick him in the balls." Sones' latest free-verse novel follows Ruby through her first few months in her new home, a mansion where her every desire is granted--except what she longs for most: her best friend, her boyfriend, and of course, her mother. Sones' novel is an unusual combination of over-the-top Hollywood fairy tale and sharp, honest story about overcoming grief. Teens may predict the novel's surprises long before Ruby discovers them... and, as in every fairy tale, many things are too good to be true--especially Whip's eager devotion and celebrity. It's Ruby's first-person voice--acrimonious, raw, and very funny--that pulls everything together, whether she is writing e-mails to her deceased mother, attending Dream Analysis class at a private L.A. high school, or finally learning to accept her father and embrace a new life. A satisfying, moving novel that will be a winner for both eager and reluctant readers. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Entertainment Weekly Winning.

Booklist, starred review Fast, funny, touching.

Publishers Weekly, starred review Honest...destined to captivate.

Review
Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewRomantic and sexy.

Book Description
My name is Ruby This book is about me. It tells the deeply hideous story of what happens when my mother dies and I'm dragged three thousand miles away from my gorgeous boyfriend, Ray, to live in L.A. with my father, who I've never even met because he's such a scumbag that he divorced my mom before I was born. The only way I've ever even seen him is in the movies, since he's this mega-famous actor who's been way too busy trying to win Oscars to even visit me once in fifteen years. Everyone loves my father. Everyone but me.

About the Author
Before becoming a writer, Sonya Sones was a film editor. Her novels, Stop Pretending and What My Mother Doesn't Know, have received numerous honors, including a Christopher Award, the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry, the Claudia Lewis Poetry Award, and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize nomination. Both books were chosen ALA Best Books for Young Adults and Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Ms. Sones says: "I grew up near Boston, but moved to L.A. in my twenties to work for a famous film director. The first time I walked through the gates of MGM, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Hollywood seemed so glamorous and exciting. But it was like living on a different planet. So when I was writing Ruby's story, I could draw on memories of my own culture shock -- seeing palm trees everywhere, movie stars standing in line at the drugstore. I even got a ticket for crossing the street...just like Ruby."

ANNOTATION

Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This winning portrayal of a teenage girl's loves and losses, written in Sones's (What My Mother Doesn't Know) signature free-verse style, opens as 15-year-old Ruby is en route from Boston to L.A. ("Hell A" as she calls it). Following her mother's untimely death (in a poem called "Maybe You're Wondering About It," Ruby furiously says, "But that's just tough./ Because I'm not even going to go in/ to how she died"), Ruby leaves behind her best friend Lizzie and her boyfriend Ray, to live with a father she's never met. Whip Logan, a famous actor, seems anxious to kindle a relationship; however, when Ruby meets him, she thinks: "I don't know whether/ to ask him for his autograph,/ kick him in the balls,/ or run." The scene in California proves "deeply surreal": neighbor Cameron Diaz pops over, Brad Pitt grins at her in the local bookstore, and at the high school she enrolls in "Dream Interpretation Through the Ages." The only person Ruby feels comfortable with is her father's live-in "assistant/slash personal trainer," Max, whom Ruby believes is gay. Sones gives the audience clear signals of what Ruby can't allow herself to take in. Readers will accept some melodrama because, even with a few contrivances, Ruby's voice conveys genuine emotions. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

VOYA - Carlisle K. Webber

It is true that the mother dies, but this hilarious and painfully real novel in verse and letters is anything but hideous. Ruby Milliken knows everything that she needs to know about her father, Whip Logan, whom she has not seen since she was a baby. He is a world-class actor, and more important, a world-class jerk who left her and her mother and never wrote once. When her mother dies, however, Ruby is sent from her home in Massachusetts to Los Angeles to live with him. She resolves not to like him, a decision that is steadily worn down by a mutual love of classic cars and some first-rate mediation by Max, Whip's personal assistant. As the school year progresses, Ruby finds a home in Los Angeles and makes some important discoveries about Whip's absence from her life. Whip Logan might be in the movies, but Sones's sparse, carefully chosen prose is the star here, conveying Ruby's conflicts of home, friendship, and family in a sympathetic, thoroughly believable manner. Ruby's grieving for her mother is heartbreaking, but also humorous and never overwrought. Without being preachy, Sones addresses stereotyping, variations of friendship, betrayal by loved ones, and parent-child relationships. Readers will cry as easily as they laugh at Ruby's frank observations of life in, as she calls it, Hellywood, even if they do not have teachers named Feather who make them keep a dream journal. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, Simon & Schuster, 272p., Ages 12 to 18.

KLIATT - Claire Rosser

Sones is a gifted writer of novels in poetry. (Her novel What My Mother Doesn't Know was selected as an ALA Best Book for YAs, and KLIATT chose it as an outstanding YA novel of 2002.) This story, told in a series of brief poems interspersed with e-mails and letters, could have been just another story about celebrity—the narrator's father is a famous movie star. It evolves into much more than that! Ruby is the narrator. Her parents were divorced before she was born and she never knew her father. Now her mother has died of cancer and the story begins as Ruby is flying to California from the East Coast to live with this father she despises because she thinks he deserted her and her mother. She is leaving behind a best friend and a boyfriend, and the loss of her mother and these close friends is enormous; yet, she is unable to cry, numbed by the trauma of her mother's death. The story moves on to details of the luxury of her father's home and way of life, Ruby's private school, filled with children of celebrities, and Ruby's continuing rage, grief, and isolation. But, then things change. Ruby feels betrayed as her best friend links up with Ruby's boyfriend back home; this loss comes to a climax when a schoolmate dies in a car accident, and his death elicits waves of grief over Ruby's mother's death—finally Ruby is able to weep. And the person who can comfort her is her father. When Ruby finally is willing to listen to him, she discovers he is quite different from the person she imagined him to be, that he has always loved her and wanted to be part of her life. YAs will love this book—for the emotional storms, for the details of life among the rich and famous, and for the basiccharacter of Ruby—smart, responsible, resilient. In a nice twist at the end, Ruby discovers she is a promising actor herself, and starts the next part of her life with a starring role in the school play, and new friends. KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2004, Simon & Schuster, 268p., Ages 12 to 18.

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10-In one- to two-page breezy poetic prose-style entries, 15-year-old Ruby Milliken describes her flight from Boston to California and her gradual adjustment to life with her estranged movie-star father following her mother's death. E-mails to her best friend, her boyfriend, and her mother ("in heaven") and outpourings of her innermost thoughts display her overwhelming unhappiness and feelings of isolation, loss, and grief ("-most days,/I wander around Lakewood feeling invisible./Like I'm just a speck of dust/floating in the air/that can only be seen/when a shaft of light hits it"). Ruby's affable personality is evident in her humorous quips and clever wordplays. Her depth of character is revealed through her honest admissions, poignant revelations, and sensitive insights. This is not just another one of those gimmicky novels written in poetry. It's solid and well written, and Sones has a lot to say about the importance of carefully assessing people and situations and about opening the door to one's own happiness. Despite several predictable particulars of plot, Ruby's story is gripping, enjoyable, and memorable.-Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews