Ruby the Copycat－童玩繪本樂

      Most Promising New Author" Publishers Weekly
                           1991 Cuffie Awards.



Summary

On the first day of Ruby’s new class, she is told to sit behind Angela. Angela, wearing a red bow in her hair, turns around and smiles at Ruby during Miss Hart’s class. At lunch time, Ruby hops home and returns with a red bow in her hair, too. Angela finds it nice and gives compliments about the red bow to Ruby. Thus, Ruby hops home every day at the lunch time and returns back with something the same as Angela wears that day for starting a new friendship. Soon, that everything Ruby does is to copy Angela starts to annoy Angela and makes her want to cry. Ruby is a copycat for Angela.

Miss Hart notices this situation and has a chance to talk to Ruby about things she has done. Unfortunately, Ruby starts to copy Miss Hart’s beautiful, polished fingernails and everything Miss Hart says! Eventually, Ruby is patient and she is willing to take Mrs. Hart’s advice. With the help from her teacher, Ruby learns to be herself in order to be liked - hopping. By the time Ruby’s classmates are laughing, Ruby shows everyone in the class how good she is at hopping. Miss Hart, at this important period, plays music and has everyone clap their hands and join her.

Analysis

Characters

1) Types of Characters:
     Protagonist (hero): Ruby
     Antagonist (villain): Angela and Miss Hart
     Foil Character: Miss Hart

2) The way characters are portrayed:
Flat Characters (stock, static characters or stereotypes)

Setting
1) Type of setting: Integral Setting

Narrative Point of View
External Omniscient Narrator (multiple points of view; the narrator is "all-knowing")

Plot
1) Type of plot structure: An Episodic Plot

First the plot establishes the setting (Ruby starts her new school and meets Angela) and conflict (Ruby begins to copy everything Angela does), then follows the rising action (Ruby even copies Angela’s poem) through to a climax (Angela doesn’t like Ruby anymore and Miss Hart asks Ruby to stay after class because she wants to talk to her). The second conflict (Ruby imitates what Miss Hart does) happens, then follows the rising action (Mrs. Hart handles the situation by asking if Ruby had done anything else.), and concludes with a denouement (Ruby accepts Miss Hart’s advice and herself).

Conflict

1) Types of conflicts:

     The Protagonist against Another
     *Because Ruby copies the clothes Angela wears, Angela’s poem
       and things Angela has done, Angel starts to be annoyed.
     *Ruby makes Miss Hart worry about her.
     *Ruby copies the way Miss Hart paints her fingernails and
       tells everyone she does the same thing as Miss Hart on the weekend.

      The Protagonist against Self
      *Ruby imitates other people because she doesn’t have confidence
       for herself.

Theme

The thematic issue in “Ruby the Copycat” is the problem of copying someone else so as to win the self-confidence. Through this story, we may see the mood that the protagonist has while she is imitating someone else’s appearance and behaviors in a new environment, and how her classmates and teacher look at this issue and then solve the problem.

Tone

Diction : The author utilizes neutral and realistic words to describe the scenes and situation. During the conversation of Angela and Ruby, Ruby smiles at the back of Angela’s head because she thinks she will win Angela’s identification by doing this. The author chooses ‘smile’ instead of giggle or chuckle.

Image:The author focuses on in a sensory – sight and feel. The concrete language helps the readers on not only creating vivid appeals but also understanding through the senses.

Details:The author chooses to include important information such as the character’s mood, movements, thoughts, and facial expression. As one character is being focused by Peggy Rathmann, she only depicts that angle. At the meantime, she excludes other useless information to help the readers concentrate on only one statement.

Language:This book is educational for young children due to the simple and clear statement that the author makes. Different angles of thoughts are placed in both exposition and dialogues for the readers to get a bigger picture of this story.

Sentence structure:The sentences in this story are simple with one or two clauses instead of more. They are short in each parallel construction. Also, they leave some emotional impressions which are sympathetic, complimentary, vexed, and candid, so the readers get specific ideas fast.

Style

Irony in words and dialogues is well used in this story. The two kinds of irony are listed as below. 1) Dramatic irony, in which the reader or the audience sees a character’s mistakes, but the character does not; 2) Irony of situation, in which there is a great difference between the purpose of a particular action and the result.

The words are simple and the longer sentences existed in some parts, so the readers can find the best explanations and descriptions of the characters’ mood. We may also find some shorter sentences in this story because the author was meant to emphasize the strength of the utterances from each character. The author uses both exposition and dialogue to provide background information and introduce characters; therefore, the readers can understand the events of the story easily through a realistic way of defining character.

Reflection

The illustrations of “Ruby the Copycat” are done with colorful pencil-and-ink drawings to clearly deliver character emotions, and subtle details in the pictures that breathe more life into the characters. Diverse hair colors are not difficult for readers to notice. My favorite illustration is all about Ruby’s and Angela’s clothes. A lavender sweater with daisies on it, a hand-painted T-shirt, the dress of the flower girl which designed by Peggy Rathmann have a great attraction for me. Moreover, the facial expressions are great as well due to the excellent drawing skills on showing the surprise, sadness, joy, and disappointment of each character.

“Ruby the Copycat” is an inspiring and entertaining story for young children about being themselves and building up their self-esteem. By the huge amount of media exposure around their daily life, children lose their attention of focusing on the right thing and having a correct aspect for their social life these days. In order to cultivate a good friendship with Angela, Ruby starts to wear the same clothes as Angela’s which are attractive and gain Angela’s attention. Unfortunately, Ruby's imitating habit becomes increasingly obvious as she happily accepts a rainbow of wet paint in imitation of Angela's hand-painted outfit, proudly plagiarizes Angela's poetry and tries red nails after admiring Miss Hart's manicure. Finally, Ruby admits that she likes to hop . To her surprise, she impresses her classmates and wins Angela's friendship at the end. This book successfully depicts every little detail of everyone’s mood during the copying procedure before Ruby gets her confidence. The clear purpose truly inspires readers. I highly recommend this book if your kids at home or students at school are always copying the utterance or behaviors from their siblings or friends.