Ruby's Slippers Now (mostly) Available!

Ruby's Slippers, about a sweet 12-year-old who moves with her mother from rural Kansas to live with her grandmother somewhere WAY over the rainbow in Coconut Grove, Florida, releases tomorrow! But since it's already shipping from online outlets, and since I saw it at my local Barnes & Noble over the weekend, I thought it was okay to announce its release today.

A few fun things about Miss Ruby Lee.

First, way back when I proposed this story to my editor, it featured another significant character: Elvis. That's right, the King of Rock was originally supposed to play a very large role in Ruby's story because her mother was supposed to be obsessed with him and his music. But when my editor read the sample pages, she loved the story of Ruby, her mother, and her grandmother, but found the Elvis parts distracting. Which was exactly how I felt writing them; I'd get so engrossed in everything else I'd have to remind myself to throw in an Elvis reference. So, my editor, being the very wise woman that she is, suggested that I continue the story without him. And thank goodness for that!

With Elvis gone, the book needed a new title. The original was All Shook Up, which no longer worked for obvious reasons. I came up with The Yellow Brick Road to Coconut Grove, which I thought was great but others at Simon & Schuster felt was too long. My editor offered Ruby Slippers as a play on Ruby's favorite Converse sneakers, and I proposed tweaking that to Ruby's Slippers so it suggested more about her journey. Everyone agreed this title was the winner. And it inspired the adorable cover, which I LOVE.

Finally, I'm thrilled to report that Ruby's Slippers was selected for the Scholastic Book Club and Fairs! Anyone who knew me as a little girl knows how much I loved the SBC; I'd spend hours analyzing the flyer before deciding which books to spend my saved weekly allowance on, and count down the days until those books arrived. So the fact that Ruby's Slippers joins The Melting of Maggie Bean and Maggie Bean Stays Afloat in receiving the honor of inclusion is very, very exciting.

I hope you enjoy!