Ruby Red Shoes: My Wonderful Grandmother

Kate Knapp

Angus & Robertson, 2020

32pp., hbk., RRP $A19.99

 9781460758885

Ruby Red Shoes lives with her grandmother Babushka Galina Galushka and they have a most wonderful relationship because her grandmother wears fluffy slippers to the shops and doesn’t care what others think;   she tells stories from the time of the dinosaurs when she was a little girl; she says big words like ‘quandary’ and ‘hullabaloo’; she belongs to a Book Club that meets once a month and sometimes laugh more than it talks; and she keeps fit through aqua aerobics.  But mostly she’s wonderful because she has x-ray spectacles and she can see deep inside Ruby and knows just what she’s feeling.

In these times when so many little ones are separated from their grandparents, as mine are from me, because of being in that high-risk age group, this could be the perfect opportunity to reflect on the relationships and consider why they are so important. In fact, Ruby invites the reader to do just that.  Perhaps the reflection might inspire a letter or a phone or video call so that connections can be maintained, or maybe the creation of a book just like this one full of special thoughts and memories that can be shared when all this is over and we can get together again.