When Ruby's grandmother, Miss Eula goes to visit her new grandbaby in Hawaii, Ruby is sure that she will have a lonely, empty, horrible summer without her in boring old Halleluia, Mississippi. What happens instead? She makes a new friend, saves the school play, writes plenty of letters to her favorite (and only) grandmother . . . and finally learns to stop blaming herself for her grandfather's death. Not too bad, for a nine-year-old. Winner of numerous awards and included on seventeen state reading lists, Love, Ruby Lavender is now republished in paperback with the original cover art by Marla Frazee.

DEBORAH WILES is the award winning author of Each Little Bird That Sings and the picture book, One Wide Sky. She has worked as a journalist and a radio commentator, and she teaches writing and oral history workshops for children. She spent much of her childhood living in a small town in Mississippi, and she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia.