Ruby

Colin Thompson (author/illustrator)

Random House, Australia: 1994, April 2011

ISBN: 9781742750897

Genres: picture book

'In the roots of a tree at the edge of a field lived a family of small contented people.' When a beautiful ruby red 1934 Austin motor car appears in their field, complete with a picnic that has enough food to feed the family for a year, the adventure begins.

Young Kevin goes on a raiding party and doesn't return. When the family stage a rescue mission they find themselves going on an unexpected journey a very long way from home. Will they ever be able to return or is this the time to start again?

Originally published in 1994 and linked to a competition with a real Austin Ruby as a prize, clever readers will find, hidden in the pages, the six letters and numbers of the car's plates. If you don't find them, don't worry – you can have a delightful time hunting through the incredibly detailed pictures with their visual jokes. Look for the Cafe Max and the reference to Tristan da Cunha, both of which feature regularly in the background of Thompson's work.

Stories about miniature folk are always a delight because they encourage the reader to look at things from a totally different perspective, fostering imagination and consideration of others. Thompson's early illustrative work is extraordinarily complex so that in Ruby there are at least three visual narratives for the observant reader. Thompson's writing is often satirical and/or cynical but he always manages to include a wonderfully innocent, humorous nuance to the narrative as well. In this case, the very small people might look at the world from a different physical perspective but they have similar characteristics to normal sized folk – the eternal pessimist, the worried mother, the attempting-to-be-heroic father are all elements of a loving family.

Whether shared or read alone, Ruby is a charming addition to any bookshelf, especially for visual readers.