The Very Aware Hare – Ruby Red Shoes
Sandra Conte
editor@earth-emag.com
1 February 2014
We could all take a leaf out of the children’s book Ruby Red Shoes where the beautifully crafted character, Ruby, introduces readers, young and old, to the treasured life she shares with her wise and warm-hearted Grandmother and carer Babushka Galina Galushka.
As we journey ‘down the rabbit hole’ into Ruby’s charmingly believable world, we come across the reasons why grace and courtesy never go out of style and how caring for all creatures great and small is an honour not a task. Ruby shares her gardening tips and many other sage-pieces of advice.
Author and creator of Ruby Red Shoes is the effervescent Kate Knapp whose prose provides a refreshing re-entry to childhood wonderment. The book Ruby Red Shoes had our entire family hooked, unlike any other; our eight year old daughter woke one Christmas to find the toy Ruby, yes there is a cuddly Ruby as well, sitting in the tree and the tradition has taken hold with something of Ruby to open at that most wonderful time of every year. Ruby has become a treasured part of our household residing on a toy swing attached to the bedroom wall. The book has been purchased for cousins in the UK and repeatedly accompanies the children on trips to Grandma and Grandads’ for re-reads. It is one of those tales that seems new and fresh every time it is revisited.
The second, recently released book, Ruby Goes to Paris means, together, we can travel to a different land with Ruby, as if on a magic carpet ride seeing new places through the eyes of a child.
Kate Knapp’s inspired watercolour and ink works and words of universal wisdom mean Ruby’s tales and travels have been have been brought to children all around the world. It is not the same formulae of Beatrix Potter but a twist of old worldy with contemporary where the philosophy of one little rabbit gives pause for thought and delight.