Book description
Born with Down syndrome, Ruby Jean Sharp comes from a time when being
a developmentally disabled person could mean growing up behind locked
doors and barred windows and being called names like
"retard" and "moron." When Ruby Jean's caregiver
and loving grandmother dies, her mother takes her to Woodlands School
in New Westminster, British Columbia, and rarely visits.
As Ruby Jean herself says: "Can't say why they called it a
school -- a school's a place you go for learnin an then after you get
to go home. I never learnt much bout ledders and numbers, an I sure
never got to go home."
It's here in an institution that opened in 1878 and was originally
called the Provincial Lunatic Asylum that Ruby Jean learns to survive
isolation, boredom, and every kind of abuse. Just when she can hardly
remember if she's ever been happy, she learns a lesson about patience
and perseverance from an old crow.
A powerful and intense story about how recently our society
considered some children to be worthless and expendable and a reminder
that this is still the the case in many places.
Gina
McMurchy-Barber was the recipient of the 2004 Governor General's Award
for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History. She majored in
archaeology at Simon Fraser University, studied orangutans in Borneo
under Dr. Birute Galdikas, and led backpack tours to Asia and South
America. Her first novel, Reading the Bones, was nominated for
the Silver Birch Award and the Langley Book of the year Award. She
lives in Surrey, British Columbia.
