Ruby The Copycat (Scholastic Bookshelf: Being Yourself) (edição 2006)

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Ruby was new in class and she sat behind Angela who had a pretty red bow in her hair. When Miss Hart asked the class what they had did that weekend, Angela shared that she was the flower girl at her sister's wedding and Ruby said she was the flower girl at her sister's wedding too. At lunch, Ruby hopped home and when she came back to school, she had a red bow in her hair just like Angela. Angela liked Ruby's bow and after that, everything Angela wore in the morning, Ruby would come back to school wearing. Eventually, Angela got sick of it. One day when Miss Hart asked the class to read out their poems they made, Angela went first and Ruby went after Angela practically reciting Angela's poem. Miss Hart had Ruby stay after class and told Ruby that she should just be herself. Ruby noticed Miss Hart's long pink nails and came back the next week with long pink nails. When Miss Hart told the class that she had gone to an opera that weekend and asked the class what they did with their weekend, Ruby said she went to the opera too. Miss Hart asked Ruby what else she had done that weekend and Ruby said she hopped. When the class started laughing, Ruby got up and showed them that it was true and started hopping all around the room. Miss Hart then turned on the radio and told all the student to hop like Ruby around the room. That day for lunch, Angela and Ruby hopped home for lunch.

I really liked this book. I absolutely loved Miss Hart in this book. She was a great teacher that every student needs. I especially loved the advice Miss Hart gave Ruby, "You can be anything you want to be, but be Ruby first. I like Ruby." I think it's really great that Miss Hart encouraged Ruby rather than scolding her. I also really loved when Miss Hart had the whole class copy Ruby because she knew this would make Ruby feel like she had finally fit in. Younger students have a very strong tendency to copy others because they want to fit in, so this story is definitely really relatable for younger students. ( )

This is a good book for kids to understand individuality. That they should be happy to be themselves instead of always copying someone else. This leaves a lot of good spots for interjection as well where you can ask the kids things like if they have been copied before. How do you think Angela feels always being copied and things like that.

Mirror book ( )

This is about a little girl who is new to the class that decides to start copying everything one of the other girl’s does. Her teacher is able to convince her that being Ruby is the best person she can be. The events in this book probably happen more often than not especially with really young ones. Children look up to each other and adults and like to do what they see being modeled or around them. The content provides insight into some student’s own problems. The theme of the story emerges naturally rather than being stated. The end of the story encourages readers to draw their own conclusions.[return][return]This book is a great tool if a teacher ever has a “copycat” situation in class that needs to be taken care of because it is distracting from the learning environment. It is important for kids to learn this lesson because this can disrupt a classroom and also cause tension within the room between students. This book also provides a connection for a great lesson on synonyms. Ruby does lots of things that are similar to Angela in the story and these can be used as examples for something similar in meaning. [return][return]Reading Level: K-3[return]Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

An offbeat story of a child who discovers her own identity.