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If you are doing a book report on Ruth Chew and need
biographical information:
First of all, good for you! Good choice of reading material.
Here is a biographical sketch from the flap of my hardcover copy
of Mostly Magic (information from 1982):
"Ruth Chew is the author of a number of popular books for young
readers, including Secondhand Magic and The Wednesday
Witch. She was born in Minneapolis and studied art at the
Corcoran School of Art, and is currently studying at the Art
Students League. The mother of five children and the grandmother of
four, she lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, Aaron B. Z.
Silver."
Ruth Chew was born on April 8, 1920 and may still be living (I am
not sure).
Click
here for some additional information from Google Answers.
See below for a list of books she has written and illustrated (I
think it's a complete list).
If you don't mind pestering your local public or university
library, I suggest you look Ruth Chew up using a resource called
Contemporary Authors or Contemporary Authors Online, published by
Thomson Gale. They have a short article written in 2001. I wish I
could just paste it here for you, but that would violate Thomson
Gale's copyright on the material. (I have tried to contact them for
permission to use the article, but I haven't had any luck yet.)
If you are looking to buy a particular
title:
These books are out of print. You will not find any of them in a
new book bookstore. You will be lucky to find them in person
in a used book bookstore, for that matter: I think that used
children's books - especially paperbacks - aren't as easy to re-sell
as other books. Used paperbacks in various conditions can be
found for sale online in various places. Hardback copies can
be bought for a premium. Be aware that there are two kinds of
hardbacks, the normal ones with plain cardboard covers and dust
jackets showing the illustration, and books that have the
illustration on the cardboard cover of the book itself, and were
produced with no dust jacket at all.
Here are the websites I recommend for buying used Ruth Chew
books:
- www.half.com,
where you can buy from a previous book owner
- www.ebay.com,
where you can buy one book or several books at once from a
previous book owner through an auction (or sometimes at a set
price)
-
www.abebooks.com, where you can buy from any of an enormous
number of dealers in the book business (all of the books listed on
abebooks.com which have ISBN numbers are also listed on half.com)
- www.amazon.com,
which I usually use for buying new books only, although they have
an extensive network of used books available from businesses and
individuals
- I might be selling some extras myself. Check my
Books for
Sale page.
I have found all of these online methods to be convenient for me.
There are a variety of payment methods available. I have never
had a problem with delivery or billing (and I've bought a lot of
books). Ebay requires that you register and create a user
account, but half.com, abebooks.com and amazon.com do not, although
you have the option.
If you are trying to remember a Ruth
Chew book:
Baked Beans for Breakfast (The Secret Summer)
Do-it-yourself Magic
Earthstar Magic
The Enchanted Book
The Hidden Cave
(The Magic Cave)
Last Chance for Magic
The Magic Coin
Magic in the Park
It is winter, and Jennifer Mace is new to Brooklyn. She visits
Prospect Park and meets an old man who feeds the birds, a raven
named Napoleon, and a boy named Michael Stewart. Jen and Michael
explore a magic island in the lake that turns into an underground
tunnel, and a magic tree that temporarily turns them into pigeons. In the
spring, Jen gets a bike for her birthday, but a mean boy named Steve
tries to steal it. Mike helps her get it back, but almost gets stuck
as a pigeon!
Magic of the Black Mirror
Mostly Magic
No Such Thing As a Witch
Royal Magic
Second Hand Magic
The Secret Tree-House
Summer Magic
Siblings Sarah and Timothy go to visit the Brooklyn Museum, and
are transported back in time to 1675 by a magic musk rose from the
Botanic Garden in Prospect Park. They meet Vrouw and Heer Maarten (Jannetje
and Hendrick), who live in a house on Mill Island, and who feed them
dinner and invite them to stay overnight. They encounter a bear
while picking berries, and get lost. They meet an Indian boy named
Beaver while digging clams, and later help him use his canoe to
rescue his family (Running Doe, Moonglow, Brave Eagle, and Star
Watcher) from pirates. Star Watcher takes the children back to the
Marten's house and throws some dried herbs on the fire to send them
home.
Trapped in Time
The Trouble with Magic
Wednesday Witch
What the Witch Left
The Wishing Tree
A Witch in the House
The Witch at the Window
Siblings Nick and Marjorie are playing in Prospect Park.
The Witch and the Ring
Witch's Broom
The Witch's Buttons
Sandy James loses a coat button. When her friend Janet Kramer
gives her a bone button shaped like a pilgrim man from her
grandmother's button bag, she finds out that the button is really a
man named Silas, who has been turned into a button by a witch named
Betsy. When a suspicious cat steals the button, Sandy and Janet
follow it to an old house, where they see the witch change Silas
back into a person. They eat some some apples stolen from the witch,
and accidentally turn invisible. After Sandy plays tricks on her
classmate Jerry, they both become visible using some of Betsy's
witch's brew. Silas, angry with Betsy, steals most of her button
collection and turns Betsy into a button, selling her to Sandy's
father. Sandy's baby sister Lisa likes Betsy as a button, but Betsy
wants to be changed back, so Sandy and Janet use some extra potion
on her, and Betsy makes a replacement button for Lisa. The next day,
Sandy and Lisa discover that the witch's house has burned down, but
in the chimney they find a brass box covered in a leafy feathery
pattern, containing the best buttons from Betsy's collection: a
faceted black button, a shiny red button, and a pearly white button.
They find that the black one grants wishes, the white one is a tiny
flying ship, and the red one answers questions. Witch Betsy shows up
and takes the buttons away again, letting them keep the chest and
presenting them with a mysterious button of their own.
Witch's Cat
The Witch's Garden
The Would-Be Witch
Wrong Way Around Magic
If you are still trying to identify a book
you remember:
Just because the book you remember doesn't match any of my
descriptions doesn't mean I can't help you. Maybe I read and
remember your book. Maybe I can look it up for you if you tell
me what you remember. I have been known to find lost books for
people, so maybe I can help you.
Also, there is a wonderful website called
www.loganberrybooks.com which runs a book finding service ($2 to
post a query) and which posts answered queries to a useful lost and
found book archive. I found one of my missing books in the
archive.
Also,
www.abebooks.com has something called book sleuth which I have
never used.
Keep hoping. You will find your book someday! You can
read stories of books I lost and then found by clicking on the "Lost
& Found" link on my menu, or by clicking
here.
My experiences with and thoughts on Ruth
Chew's books:
Ruth Chew's books are at the youngest end of the spectrum of
children's books that I read. I rediscovered Ruth Chew's books when
I found a couple of them while shopping for used books, and all the
memories came back. I found I could remember individual characters,
scenes, and events from some of the stories I had read when I was
much much younger. These books are short chapter books (about 120
pages) illustrated beautifully by the author.
I have noticed that the type of magic Ruth Chew writes about is
fairly consistent, and fairly consistently appealing to a young
imagination. All her stories involve one or more of the following
themes or ideas: size or shape changing, flying, a magic object that
behaves unpredictably, a misfit witch or wizard, being in a
different time or place, and/or talking to and making friends with
animals. The protagonists are always a brother and a sister, or two
friends, who share the adventure. Often they live in New York City.
There do seem to be two distinct categories of books among her
works. There are the kind which are full of magical happenings, and
there are the kind which involve no magic except for a trip back in
time. The books in this second category are more historical and
educational in nature. This category includes the books Last
Chance for Magic, Royal Magic, Summer Magic, Magic of the Black
Mirror, Trapped in Time and Wrong Way Around Magic.
Then there's Baked Beans for Breakfast aka The Secret
Summer. This book has absolutely no magic at all - it's
just about two kids who run away from home. Arguably, freedom
is its own kind of magic...
One thing I really like about Ruth Chew's books is that there is
always a tidy plot. There is a friend to be made or a problem to be
solved. However, the plot is never such that everything goes back to
normal at the end of the book: there is always something gained at
the end of the story. The last page of every book seems to wink and
say, "Now, wasn't that worthwhile?"
A note to the excessively protective or politically correct: Yes,
Ruth Chew did write about witches and wizards and covens and
broomsticks and black cats. Have no fear of these witches. If
anything, they will teach young readers the values of friendship,
independence, and self-esteem, since that's what the books are
really about.
If you would like to share your thoughts on
Ruth Chew and her books or your thoughts on my Ruth Chew page:
Send email about Ruth Chew to webmaster at spjg.com. If you have questions, keep in
mind that pretty much everything I know about Ruth Chew is already
on this page.
Books by Ruth Chew:
(I have read and enjoyed all of these books by
Ruth Chew. I own almost all of them -- I'm missing Baked Beans for
Breakfast.)
- Baked Beans for Breakfast
- Do-it-yourself Magic
- Earthstar Magic
- The Enchanted Book
- The Hidden Cave
- Last Chance for Magic
- The Magic Cave
- The Magic Coin
- Magic in the Park
- Magic of the Black Mirror
- Mostly Magic
- No Such Thing As a Witch
- Royal Magic
- Second Hand Magic
- The Secret Summer
- The Secret Tree-House
- Summer Magic
- Trapped in Time
- The Trouble with Magic
- Wednesday Witch
- What the Witch Left
- The Wishing Tree
- A Witch in the House
- The Witch at the Window
- The Witch and the Ring
- Witch's Broom
- The Witch's Buttons
- Witch's Cat
- The Witch's Garden
- The Would-Be Witch
- Wrong Way Around Magic
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Note: The Hidden Cave and The Magic Cave are the
same book, as are The Secret Summer and Baked Beans for
Breakfast.
Books illustrated by Ruth Chew:
(O=own, R=read, E=enjoyed)
- Shark Lady: True Adventures of Eugenie Clark by Ann
McGovern
(ORE)
- Mystery of the Ghost Bell by Val Abbot
(OR)
- Three Cheers for Polly by Carol Morse
- The Questers by E. W. Hildick
(ORE)
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