Home > Categories > Books > Young Adult > The Search for Baby Ruby review
Jess O'Fines is stuck with the task of babysitting her baby niece at the hotel, while the rest of the family is at the rehearsal dinner for her sister's wedding. Away from the baby for a few minutes she returns to the bedroom to find her gone. A suspenseful and emotional search ensues, with Jess fighting guilt and terror as she masterminds the retrieval of Baby Ruby.
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I think this book was written for a different age group than portrayed in the book. Jess is a twelve year old girl who is given responsibilities beyond her twelve years. Jess's family is dysfunctional and the book covers issues I find beyond a child's mentality such as shop lifting, a home for troubled girls and kidnapping. I read this first and made the decision not to let Miss Ten read The Search For Baby Ruby. Maybe in a few years, I would like her innocence intact for some time yet!
Another point I felt was portrayed in a bad way was Jess's weight or as it was called in the book "baby fat" It was mentioned and written in what I feel was a negative way. Twelve year old girls should not be worrying about things such as their weight and this story reflects it as a bad thing. I think positive encouragement and confidence in ones own self is important especially coming into your teenage years so feel the book was inappropriate towards the issue.
The thing I did like about "The Search for Baby Ruby" was that despite the family being a dysfunctional one they all come together in their time of need and supported one another. Perhaps that was the message the author was trying to put across I am not sure.
I would recommend this book for children in their teens, not before.
I am struggling to remember what it was like to be a 12 year old girl but I do know one thing if anything bad happened to the point it was a life or death situation I would definitely of told an adult, not necessarily my parents but an adult never the less. I found it absolutely rediculous that a twelve year old finds the baby missing and tells no one and decides to take care of it by herself and then gets help from her elder sister. It just did not seem very plausible to me.
Its not just how fustrating that story line was that I did not like this book but also how things happened with no real explanation or the way people got jump to conclusions. For example I can not understand how Teddy knew the baby was missing just by walking into the hotel bedroom or how the maid figured it out either. Then with the house maid knowing this (and most coming down for a nosy) that not one contacted the front desk or the police. Then there is the fact the rumours have spread through the hotel but somehow manage to miss the wedding rehearsals dinner. Or when Jess knocks on a complete random room with a crying baby and that lady jumps to the conclusion that she lost the baby - it all just does not make sense.
The book is very conversation heavy and at the start it was quite confusing who is speaking and what that person has to do with the story. I found not everyone was explained very well and in the end I had to just guess who they were. There are also times during the conversations you are unsure who is actually speaking and it could get quite messy.
I did have such high hopes for the book as it sounds like a good read but unfortunately I did not find the author quite meet the mark and found it rather tedious to read at times. I can not really recommend this as although I enjoy some aspects I don't particularly think it was exercuted very well.
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