Broken Bones

A vandalized burial in an abandoned pioneer cemetery brings 12-year-old Peggy Henderson and her elderly archaeologist friend Eddy to Golden, British Columbia, to excavate. The town dates back to the 1880s when most of the citizens were tough and rowdy miners and railway workers who rarely died of old age. Since the wooden burial markers disintegrated long ago, Peggy and Eddy have no way of knowing the dead man's identity. But when Eddy discovers the vertebrae at the base of the skull are crushed, a sure sign the cause of death was hanging, they have their first clue.Peggy's tendency to make quick judgments about others leads her to the conclusion that only bad people are hanged, so the man in the burial must have gotten what he deserved. Hoping to learn more about him that proves her beliefs, she is soon digging through dusty old newspapers at the small-town museum. It's there that Peggy learns that sometimes good people do bad things.

ruby Jean Sharp Comes From A Time When Being A Developmentally Disabled Person Could Mean Growing Up Behind Locked Doors And Barred Windows And Being Called Names Like Retard And Moron. Born With Down's Syndrome, Ruby Jean Is Lovingly Cared For By Her Grandmother. But After Grandma Dies When Ruby Is Eight, Her Mother Takes Her To Woodlands School In New Westminster, British Columbia, And Never Comes Back.

as Ruby Jean Herself Says: Can't Say Why They Called It A School - A School's A Place You Go For Learnin An Then After You Get To Go Home. I Never Learnt Much Bout Ledders And Numbers, An I Sure Never Got To Go Home. Nope, Only Stayed At Woodlands All Day An All Night. I Lived On Ward 33. It's Here In An Institution That Opened In 1878 And Was Originally Called The Provincial Lunatic Asylum That Ruby Jean Learns To Survive Isolation, Boredom, And Every Kind Of Abuse. Just When She Can Hardly Remember If She's Ever Been Happy, She Learns A Lesson About Patience And Perseverance From An Old Crow.

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ruby Jean Sharp's First-person Narrative Commands Attention From The Opening Paragraphs Where She Describes Her Life At British Columbia's Woodlands School (for The Mentally Disabled, Called Retarded In The 1960s And 1970s). The Story Beautifully Captures A Young Girl's Mental, Emotional, And Behavioral Regression After Being Deposited At Age Eight In A Place Where The Uniforms Held The Keys And Abused Their Power. Born With Down's Syndrome, Ruby Jean's Guileless Telling Presents Her Experience—unvarnished, Including Being Called A Gaw'damn Retard And Learning To Scratch, Bite, And Urinate In Self-defense. The Clarity Of Her Vision Exquisitely Related From Her Limited Perspective Tells Readers More Than Could An Account By Hospital Staff. Learning From Her Own Heartbreaking Abandonment And Subsequent Exploitation, Ruby Jean Knows When To Avoid New Residents And How To Keep Her Distance When Other Residents Have Emotional Difficulties. Distant Memories Of A Loving Grandmother Resurface When She Is Nurtured To Live Beyond The School's Restrictive Walls. Inspired By The Author's Personal Experience Of Having A Mentally Challenged Sibling And Later Working With Special Needs Children At Woodlands, This Powerful Tale Will Appeal To Readers At Many Age Levels, Especially Those Who Loved Ben Mikaelsen's Petey (hyperion/dbg, 1998/voya February 1999). Hypnotizing, Much Like Daniel Keyes's Flowers For Algernon (1968), This Tale Elicits Compassion For All Persons And May Enhance Readers' Abilities To Empathize With People Different From Themselves. An Excellent Academic Enrichment Text, It Would Easily Complement Studies Involving Mentally Or Physically Challenged People. Reviewer: Cynthia Winfield

Short-listed for the 2009 Silver Birch Award, commended for the 2009 Best Books for Kids & Teens Due to circumstances beyond her control, 12-year-old Peggy Henderson has to move to the quiet town of Crescent Beach, British Columbia, to live with her aunt and uncle. Without a father and separated from her mother, who's looking for work, Peggy feels her unhappiness increasing until the day she and her uncle start digging a pond in the backyard and she realizes the rock she's been trying to pry from the ground is really a human skull. Peggy eventually learns that her home and the entire seaside town were built on top of a 5000-year-old Coast Salish fishing village. With the help of an elderly archaeologist, a woman named Eddy, Peggy comes to know the ancient storyteller buried in her yard in a way that few others can – by reading the bones. As life with her aunt becomes more and more unbearable, Peggy looks to the old Salish man from the past for help and answers. Born with Down syndrome, Ruby Jean Sharp comes from a time when being a developmentally disabled person could mean growing up behind locked doors and barred windows and being called names like "retard" and "moron." When Ruby Jean's caregiver and loving grandmother dies, her mother takes her to Woodlands School in New Westminster, British Columbia, and rarely visits. As Ruby Jean herself says: "Can't say why they called it a school -- a school's a place you go for learnin an then after you get to go home. I never learnt much bout ledders and numbers, an I sure never got to go home." It's here in an institution that opened in 1878 and was originally called the Provincial Lunatic Asylum that Ruby Jean learns to survive isolation, boredom, and every kind of abuse. Just when she can hardly remember if she's ever been happy, she learns a lesson about patience and perseverance from an old crow. Due to circumstances beyond her control, 12-year-old Peggy Henderson has to move to the quiet town of Crescent Beach, British Columbia, to live with her aunt and uncle. Without a father and seperated from her mother, who's looking for work, Peggy feels her unhappiness increasing until the day she and her uncle start digging a pond in the backyard and she realizes the rock she's been trying to pry from the ground is really a human skull Twelve year old Peggy Henderson has to move to small town BC to live with her aunt and uncle. When digging a pond in their back yard she discovers the house was built on a five-thousand-year old Salish burial ground. With the help of an elderly archaeologist Peggy looks more and more to the past for help and answers