The Secret of the Ruby Ring - Softcover

MacGrory, Yvonne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0947962646 ISBN 13: 9780947962647

Publisher: Irish Books & Media, 1991

Synopsis

Book by MacGrory, Yvonne

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6-On her 11th birthday, Lucy McLaughlin, a young Irish girl, receives from her grandmother a ruby ring that can grant two wishes. Transported back in time more than 100 years, she finds herself walking up a lonely road as the imposing stone turrets of Langley Castle draw nearer and nearer. Then she looses the ring, and unless she can find it, she will remain lost in a bygone age. A multifaceted tale of time travel and historical fiction unfolds against the complexities of Irish politics in 1885 (which may not strike a responsive chord with many intended readers.) Numerous black-and-white sketches illustrate the style of living and the levels of servants in a wealthy household, and afford a brief glimpse of life among the rural poor outside the castle walls. Initially a rather spoiled and selfish child, Lucy becomes a nursery maid and is forced to recognize an individual's worth whether "upstairs" or "downstairs." MacGrory's evocative language, coupled with myriad details of daily life, reconstructs an age unknown to most. The book is rather lengthy, but the size and number of sketches so finely attuned to the text will bolster its appeal. A definite purchase to answer requests for "a book set in a foreign country," time travel, or historical fiction.
Joanne Kelleher, Commack Public Library,
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 4-6. This Irish time-travel fantasy is a good old-fashioned story in every sense. Just before her eleventh birthday, Lucy receives from her grandmother a ruby ring with a dramatic history and the power to grant two wishes. When Lucy wishes to live in a "much larger house," she's magically transported to a nearby castle in a time long past, 1885. There she earns her keep as the nursery maid until she can adapt to her new position, befriend the two children in the nursery, regain her missing ring, and wish herself home again. Just as the book seems about to end disappointingly in the "was it all a dream?" mode, Lucy's parents take her to the same castle for her birthday treat. She rediscovers her strangely distant yet immediate past insistently preserved by the two children who had grown up in the house a century before. Intriguing and convincing in its depiction of the historical era, the book shows clearly the discomforts as well as the romanticized elements of the times. The fantasy adds another dimension. Though Lucy's maturity seems to come rather suddenly, it's the hard-won reward of trials endured. Fans of Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden will find an echo of its power as the two eras converge at the end, poignantly underscored by Lucy's sudden, concrete understanding of the passage of time. Carolyn Phelan

About this edition

• Publisher: Irish Books & Media
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0947962646
• ISBN 13: 9780947962647
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192
• Illustrator: Myler Terry