Oram (In the Attic
) introduces a starry-eyed rag doll named Ruby Roo who appears on the doorstep of Rubbaduck, a retired bath toy with a lighthouse all to himself. "My child grew up," Ruby Roo announces. "Now what shall I do?" Rubbaduck, a round, trustworthy drake who grows his own leeks and pumpkins, seems just the sort to give Ruby Roo a new start. Despite first appearances, though, this is not a friendship story, but rather a fairy tale. Innocent-looking Ruby Roo eats Rubbaduck out of house and home. Worse yet, when he sends her to market to buy seeds for more vegetables, she comes home with a Magic Dancing Stick, a Magic Singing Bee and a Magic Fiddle. Like the magic beans Jack's mother tosses out the window, Ruby Roo's purchases are met with dismay. True to the beanstalk formula, however, the magic objects make the two toys a fortune in the end. In a stylistic departure from his Halibut Jackson
, Lucas's airy ink-outlined, watercolor-tinted world has a Nutcracker feel, as if everything is made of cake and candy. Rubbaduck's lighthouse boasts crystal salt and pepper shakers, a pedestal table and duck ancestor portraits. In this world, anything seems possible. Readers will enjoy watching these two as they discover a happily-ever-
after ending for Ruby Roo's enormous appetite. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)
