Southern Writers Tour – Deborah Wiles

The next stop on our tour is a long way from vampires and into the shelves of middle grade fiction. Most of you probably don't read a lot of middle grade fiction, unless you happen to be a librarian or a teacher. As an elementary school Reading Specialist, I've read my share and one of my favorites is Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles. Wiles understands a fundamental truth about Southern literature: at its core, great Southern lit is a ship navigated by an incredibly unique and believable protagonist. And he/she is generally surrounded by a cast of characters that are: quirky, eccentric (which in the South means crazy), certifiable, ornery, and oftentimes broken.

Ruby Lavender and her friends in Halleluia, Mississippi are no exception.

Description:

    "Ruby Garnet Lavender and her relationship with her
    wacky grandmother,
Miss Eula, in Halleluia, Mississippi
    (Population: 400 Good Friendly Folks
And A Few Old
    Soreheads). It's also about three (stolen) unruly chickens,

the town bully, the town operetta, a death in the family,
    friendship,
laughter, grief…"

    Ruby is incredibly charming and honest, and I was sure
    that Deborah Wiles would never be able to write a
    narrator as compelling or believable. But, as it is often the
    case with great authors, Wiles proved me wrong when
    she introduced Comfort Snowberger. Comfort lives in
    a funeral home — where else? And she steals the show
    in Each Little Bird That Sings.

Description:

   Comfort Snowberger has attended 247 funerals. That’s
   a lot for a ten-year-old. But
if your family runs the
   town funeral home and their motto is “We Live
to Serve,”
   then that’s what you do. Yes, it’s sad when Great-Great
   Aunt
Florentine drops dead—just like that in the vegetable
   garden —but
Comfort knows how to handle loss. What she
   can’t handle is her crazy
cousin Peach, who ruins every
   family occasion, and her best friend,
Declaration, who
   suddenly won’t speak to her. Aunt Florentine’s funeral
will
   be a time to remember. But all Comfort really wants to do
   is sit
in her closet with her dog, Dismay, and hide.

   Life is full of surprises. And the biggest one of all is
   learning what it takes to handle them."

Anyone interested in Southern lit, or writing it, should read Wiles. It should be a prerequisite. Once you read one of her books, you'll understand what I'm talking about and you'll understand how to write about the South.

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Deborah Wiles was born in Alabama, but she spent the summers in Mississippi, which is where most of her books are set. She was the
first children's book author to be named Writer-in-Residence at the
Thurber House, the house where James Thurber grew up. She has won the
Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. She was a writing teacher at Towson University until she moved to Atlanta. Love, Rube Lavender was her first novel and an ALA Notable Children's Book, and has been nominated for over twenty-six awards.

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