COX, Sean Daniel Ruby: the adventures of a travel bug Self Pub, 2014 unpaged $15.00 pbk ISBN 9780646912431
Ruby is a likeable ladybird who loves to travel. Every night she leaves her bed and makes her way to the airport where she chooses a destination from the big boards she loves so much. Tonight Tanzania sounds good, and the plane is about to take off. Ruby thoroughly enjoys the flight, while clinging to the aircraft’s wing, and when she lands, she is ready to start her whirlwind adventure and meet new friends. The first animal she meets is Kaliha the giraffe, then Dan the laughing hyena and finally Cassie the cheetah who kindly and speedily delivers her back to the airport in time to catch her flight home. There she just has time to visit the gift shop before hitching her ride home and fall back into bed to dream about her new friends, all of whom happen to be attractively spotty.
The acrylic illustrations with their charming, naive character perfectly match the simple text with its hand-lettered style. The design is beautiful, varied and full of clear bright colour set off with plenty of clean crisp white. A surprise gift (from the gift shop) is included in each copy. A comprehensive description of the processes used to create the illustrations is included in an author’s note on the imprint page.
reviewed by Joy Steward