A Story Is to Share: How Ruth Krauss Found Another Way to Tell a Tale

A Story is to Share is a fun picture book biography about the life of Ruth Krauss, an American children’s author. Carter Higgins pays homage to Krauss’ unique style by telling the story in a poetic way, using precise language in minimal words. It begins with a baby being born during a storm. The baby, Ruth, grows up to be a young girl riding her bike through the house. But she is often sick and loses her voice, so she comes up with new ways to communicate. Little Ruth is always creating, often making books that she illustrates and sews herself. This is her way of telling a story differently. Everything Ruth does she gives it her own twist. When playing the violin, she tries to create new sounds by playing it on the floor or upside down. At camp, she wears her clothes backwards and encourages her friends to make up rules for games.

As an adult, Ruth finds another way to paint, and, through her painting, she sees stories. She writes her stories, but publishers turn her away. Ruth does not give up but has trouble writing her stories until she speaks with her neighbour, a little boy who reminds her how to find other ways to tell a story. She listens and plays and remembers the wonders of being a child. The little boy becomes her inspiration for her first book, The Carrot Seed.

Higgins does a wonderful job portraying Ruth’s life and quirky personality in a form that young children can easily understand. The soft watercolour illustrations by Isabelle Arsenault closely resemble those of Crockett Johnson who illustrated some of Ruth’s books, such as The Carrot Seed and How to Make an Earthquake. Ruth understood how observant children are and how capable they are of living in the moment. This understanding, and by her making fun an important concept in her life, helped her to become a pioneer in children’s literature. By embracing her own uniqueness, she encouraged her readers to do so as well.

At the end of the story, Higgins provides a more in depth look at Ruth’s life in her “Author’s Note” for readers looking for more information. A Story is to Share would be a great addition to any elementary school classroom or simply for the enjoyment of young readers and for those who grew up reading Ruth Krauss’ classic books.