Wordsmith Wednesday: Ruby In Her Own Time

I bought this book long before Owen was even thought of. When I was working on my MA in teaching, I took a completely useless reading pedagogy class. The only good thing I got out of is was reading and reviewing 5 children's books a week. This is one of the gems I found.

Ruby In Her Own Time (written by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated Rebecca Harry) tells the story of a duck family with five ducklings. Ruby is the runt and starts life a bit slow. They name her Ruby because she is small and precious (and because all the other kids have R names). Father duck asks again and again, "Will she ever. . ." hatch, eat, swim, etc. And she does. She does eat - "in her own time." She does swim - "in her own time." When all the brothers and sisters fly, she does too, but she goes farther and wider. Mama duck wonders if she will ever return, and she does in her own time with her own family of ducklings.
The writing is nothing out of the ordinary and the pictures are alright, but I really love the message of this book. I think that it important for children to develop in their own time. This is one I love to read over and over to Owen.