Ruby’s Hope: A Story of How the Famous “Migrant Mother” Photograph Became the Face of the Great Depression

Billed as “partially imagined,” Kulling creates a backstory for one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century—Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother. Kulling’s telling focuses on seven-year-old Ruby, one of the children pictured in the image, and relates how the family was forced to migrate from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma to the insecurity of life as itinerant farmworkers in California. As the family suffers—“Days passed and food dwindled. Ruby’s hope dwindled, too”—a photographer shows up at the migrants’ camp. Ruby leads the photographer—Lange—to her mother, the image is snapped, and its publication triggers relief efforts. An author’s note clarifies that this is not what happened. Readers will have to look elsewhere to learn the true story of the woman in the picture—Florence Owens Thompson, a member of the Cherokee Nation—which may raise questions. Dvojack’s digitally colored graphite illustrations evoke lost moments of dust and tenderness. Ages 6–10. (Sept.)