Rick Detorie is a genius. It's as simple as that. This is a delightful strip featuring Baltimore residents Frank and Ellen and their bright, spirited children, Ruthie, 6 and Joe, 8. One set of grandparents lives nearby and are delightful and realistic. Joe and Ruthie come up with the best and most plausible one-liners, the kind that only children can make. Their view of the world is funny, realistic and also poignantly serious. Each character, from Ruthie's friend James, who lives in poverty to her classmate Earl, a boy with Asperger's and an inexhaustible supply of information about vaccuum cleaners is a major contributor to the strip. Even Miss Avis, a pompous, irritating neighbor with a penchant for moralizing and talking down to kids gets a good lesson in why that won't work. Who shows the pompous neighbor by example? Ruthie! She comes up with the best comebacks and funniest one-liners and the best part of it all is the natural flow, rhythym and style of expression. I'll say it again. Rick Detorie is an absolute genius!
A triumph in the person of one young woman
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
I most strongly relate to Grandma Rose and inter-inlaw relations with Grandma Myrna, yet am not too old to relate to Ruthie. This strip is the first thing I read each morning, yet the book is a well-thumbed reference on my reading table. I quote everyone in the family liberally, so don't start with me - I have Mace in my pocketbook!
HA HA HA HA HA HA
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
I have 5 nieces and its great to see that someone will make little girls how they really are! Ruthie rules! Anyone who has little girls now will tell you sugar and spice are out..its mud and mischief for the 90's and beyond! Great to see the old stereotype crumbling. Except for Charles Schultz "lucy" most little girls in comic strips have been portrade the same way....Mostly sugar and spice and everything nice! HA! Thanks for reading NT
This book is One Big Happy Read!!!!!!!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
All of this fun is definitely Rick Detorie's fault. Like his "Should I Spit on Him?", "None of this fun is my Fault" is a fantastic collection of "One Big Happy" moments not to be missed by anyone. As a father of three, I can only say that Rick Detorie has hit the proverbial nail on the head. All of the One Big Happy family is represented, from Frank and Ellen, to Rose and Nick, even Myrna makes an appearence, but this book belongs to Joe and Ruthie and their wonderful view of everyday life. It is said, "Out of the mouth of babes, oft time come gems", from Rick Detorie's Joe and Ruthie we get a veritable "Tiffany's". If you are lucky enough to have "One Big Happy" in your daily newspaper, you will understand how this book can be reviewed so highly. If not, than this book is a must just to see what you're missing. If you have grown up anywhere in America, over the last 40 or so years, there are parts in this book that will have you laughing out loud and nodding at the reality of it all. The rating is 5 stars only because the rating system goes no farther.
Ruthie rules!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
Ruthie is in the tradition of Little Lulu,Annie, and Krazy Kat, if you think of her as a girl. Funny, silly, deceptive and subversive, she's hard not to like if you can appreciate a complicated woman. You'll wish she was your childhood sweetheart, even when she's lying outright, making up the most childish nonsense, or just being Ruthie. Not as brilliant as Calvin and Hobbes, but One Big Happy will do.
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