Ruby the Copycat by Peggy Rathmann

This book is about a new girl in class named Ruby. Ruby sits behind a girl named Angela and copies everything that she does. She wears the same clothes and says that she does everything that Angela does. The teacher, Miss Hart, has a talk with Ruby and tells her to be herself. Ruby says she likes Miss Hart's fingernails and the next day at school, Ruby has the same fingernails as her teacher. Miss Hart isn't very happy but gets Ruby to tell the class something that she's good at. Ruby tells the class that she can hop and she is the best hopper the class has ever seen. Everyone starts hopping like Ruby and now they are copying her.

This is a good lesson book because very often in elementary school, kids copy eachother. This book shows that it's ok to be yourself. It is also a funny book and it's a good "predictor book." Children can use evidence from the text and illustrations to figure out what may happen next. For example, when Ruby says that she likes Miss Hart's fingernails, one can predict that Ruby will show up the next day at class with the same fingernails.

I would say the illustrations in this book are mediocre but they do provide humor. When Ruby tries to look like Angela by wearing the same daisy sweater, Ruby pins flowers on a sweater and it looks very messy. The illustrations do a good job of showing how hard Ruby is trying to look like Angela, even when it is not pretty. I would recommend this book for kids ages 3-8.