RUBY FLEW TOO! New Ingram Spark Print-on-Demand Paperback Edition

The new Ingram Spark print-on-demand edition of Ruby Flew Too!

A few years ago, illustrator Rebecca Harry and I published a print-on-demand edition of our picture book Ruby Flew Too! (titled Ruby in Her Own Time in the US). As I wrote on this blog at the time, I've received more emails about this book than any of my other books, with many readers telling me how Ruby's story had touched their lives. You can read excerpts from some of these emails in this blog post. So when the book went out of print with its UK publisher, Rebecca and I decided to re-publish it ourselves. We originally published the book using Amazon's Createspace print-on-demand service as — at that time — it offered better print quality than its main competitor Ingram Spark. However in the last three years this gap has closed and we've now published the book on Ingram Spark as well.

The main reason for publishing the book on both print-on-demand services is that the Createspace (now KDP) edition is only available through Amazon, whereas the new Ingram Spark edition can be ordered through local bookshops as well as non-Amazon online stores like Hive and Wordery.

Here are couple of spreads from the new edition.

"Then one bright morning, the eggs began to hatch."

"And sure enough, she did."

And here is a read-along video of the book.

If this edition proves popular, Rebecca and I hope to make the sequels, This Way, Ruby! and Go For It, Ruby! available through Ingram Spark as well.

Order the Ingram Spark Edition with FREE DELIVERY from Hive

(Note: Because the book is print-on-demand it may be listed as "Out of Stock" at Hive,

but you can still order a copy which should be dispatched within a week).

Download the activity sheets for this book by clicking on the images below

Board Game

Draw Ruby

Colouring Sheet

Click here to find out more about this book on my web site

RUBY THE DUCKLING Easter competition artwork

The Ruby the Duckling books by me and Rebecca Harry are particularly popular around Easter time. I guess this has something to do with Ruby's resemblance to a yellow Easter chick.

Rebecca and I decided to mark this Easter by offering Ruby's readers the chance to win a portrait of Ruby by Rebecca in a prize competition. To enter they had to paint or draw their own Ruby portrait and send a photo of it to Rebecca or myself via Twitter or Facebook. Rebecca had provided some guidance on how to do this on a How to Draw Ruby activity sheet on the Hatchling Books web site.

Click here to download a copy of Rebecca's
How to Draw Ruby sheet.

Here are the lovely drawings and paintings we received in response:

The first Ruby to arrive was this one, by a real life Ruby, age 3.

By Elodie, age 5.

The clutch of Rubies shown below arrived together from the same class!

This first clutch of lovely pictures is from Leyla May age 3, Madison age 4, Ava age 4, Lewi age 3, Deakon age 4,
Grace age 4, Emelia age 3, Annette age 5 & Rhiannon age 5 …

… and this second cracking selection is from Brodie age 5, Bobby-Jai age 5, Isla age 5, Harry age 5, Charles age 5, Amelia age 5, Daniel age 4, Jenson age 3, Khloe age 3, Jenson age 3, Ethan age 3 and Jack age 5.

By Rhiannon, age 4.

By Mair

Our last entry was from another real life Ruby!.

When the competition was finished, Rebecca wrote all the names on strips of paper, put them into a bag and got her son, Iolo, to pick a winner at random, which was …

The winning picture by Ethan, age 3.

… this painting by Ethan Ethrington!

Congratulations to Ethan! This lovely portrait of Ruby, signed by Rebecca and myself, will be winging its way to you shortly.

Rebecca painted this picture of Ruby especially for the competition.

Find out more about the Ruby the Duckling books

at the Hatchling Books web site

Ruby Flew Too! • Readers' Emails

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve received more emails and letters about Ruby Flew Too! (titled Ruby in Her Own Time in the US) than any other book that I've written.

It's clear from these messages that Ruby's story has had a profound effect on the lives of many families and been a comfort and inspiration to readers of all ages during challenging times. It seems to have struck a particularly strong chord with families of premature babies.

Here are a few excerpts from some of the emails that families have sent me since the book, which is beautifully illustrated by Rebecca Harry,  was first published in 2004. All excerpts are shown with the writer's permission

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"I first discovered your book when another parent mailed it to me while my daughter was fighting for her life in a NICU in Portland, Oregon. Her daughter was also born in the same hospital and was a survivor of the same birth defect, CDH that was the reason why we were there. There is something you come to learn with a child in the NICU. It is always on THEIR time schedule. In their own time. You can never push them. They will do things when THEY are ready. All those things are the same things that your book speaks to. I read this book to her while she was attached to ventilators and while she was being weaned down from the nasal canula, and as she was learning to eat. 49 days after her birth, my daughter came home. In her own time. I just wanted you to know how the story has touched me, and many other parents." Liz, Oregon, US

"Our daughter, Brooke, was born pre-maturely and spent six months in the NICU with pretty serious health concerns. She couldn't breathe or eat on her own and we were told that she wouldn't live to see her first birthday. Brooke needed a trach tube and ventilator to help her breathe and was vent dependent for almost two years. We slowly weaned Brooke off the vent and she started to do things the doctors said she wouldn't. Brooke did see her first birthday and is now a happy four year old girl. While we were in the hospital, we read Ruby In Her Own Time to Brooke almost every day. We always told Brooke that she would do things in her own time, just like Ruby. It is such a beautiful story and she still enjoys reading it today." Heather Illinois, US

"I reread your book whenever I am anxious about our little Ruby. As with most preemies she is behind in all her milestones and there have been many a time when I have battled with my own frustrations at how far ahead her peers always seem to be. When I find myself asking "will she ever crawl?" "will she ever walk?" or "will she ever talk?" I always revert to mother duck's words of profound wisdom - "She will. In her own time." Thank God for mother duck! I wonder if you ever thought, when you were writing your book, what a profound effect it would have on a family somewhere on the other side of the world. You must have been guided by an angel. Thank you." Tess, Cape Town, South Africa

"I'm not sure who gave us Ruby In Her Own Time, but I must say this is my favorite children's book. The book was given to us when my oldest daughter, who turns 13 this Tuesday, was a baby. The funny thing is I think we referenced it more as she got older than when we read it to her as a child. Although she was an excellent student since the time she started school, in most other aspects of life she was Ruby. Whether it was playing sports, going on rides, trying new things, Casey was always cautious and not always willing. The only difference to the book was as the father I was the one saying, "in her own time". As she becomes a teenager this week, I've look back at how she blossomed over the years. The girl who did not walk until 16 months can run like the wind. The timid kid who stayed away from the ball in sports became an excellent athlete. The painfully shy girl, has opened herself up to new adventures and a curiosity about the world. When my wife would get slightly frustrated with her holding back on things I would always say, "she will, in her own time". To which my wife would reply something like she really is Ruby. … Thank you for this wonderful piece of work which I hope my children will pass down to their own someday." Kevin, New York, US

"You see, children's books are every bit as important and moving as the greatest novel ever written. For your beautifully illustrated book (and do thank Ms. Rebecca Harry for her gentle artwork) showed us in that moment that one day, our daughter would be okay. In the darkest hours when we worried if she'd ever eat food or gain weight, if she'd ever look like normal children or if she'd always have to rely on a feeding tube, we'd repeat "in her own time". Our daughter loved to see that she was special in her own way, and that it was okay to be herself. Well I'm happy to tell you that today, two and a half years after having her feeding tube put in, with a lot of therapy, medicine, and love, Ruby had her feeding tube taken out for good at the hospital. Just like the duckling in your book, she's brave and blossoming and true to herself. We read Ruby in Her Own Time tonight, turning page after well worn page, some of them with edges she chewed on when she ate nothing else, some splattered with her tube formula, some barely clinging to the staples. You told us she could soar, that she would one day fly higher than we ever dreamed. And that day has come. It's honestly a wonderful gift you gave us, a stranger nearly a world away, completely by happenstance. But your words and your lovely tale will forever be treasured by our family, our Ruby, who has indeed done it in her own time. Thank you so much." Kat and Randy, North Carolina, US

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All three of the Ruby books are now available in new Hatchling Books editions.

Click here to go to the Hatchling books web site

How to Draw Ruby, with illustrator Rebecca Harry

To mark the publication of the new editions of our Ruby the Duckling books, illustrator Rebecca Harry has taken over my blog to show you How to Draw Ruby. And it looks like she's found a little helper …

You can follow Ruby's adventures in these Hatchling Books paperbacks.

Click here to go to the Hatchling books web site

You can find out more about Rebecca Harry and her books at her website rebeccaharry.com,

follow her on Facebook at @rebeccaharryillustrator or on Twitter at @BekHarry1.

Ruby Flies Again! – RUBY THE DUCKLING new editions

All three of the Ruby books are now available in new Hatchling Books editions

The children’s book business is exactly that – a business – and if sales begin to tail off for a book, a publisher will often decide to take it out of print. Any stock that remains in the warehouse is sold off at a heavily discounted price for sale in bargain bookshops and the book disappears from bookseller’s databases. As I write this, a little under half of my books are out of print. Every now and again a publisher may decide to delight an author by putting an out-of-print book back into print. However this a relatively rare occurrence and – generally speaking – when a publisher tells me that they are taking one of my books out of print I’ve learnt to take it in my stride and focus on getting new books published.

“Generally speaking” that’s what I do – but some books are harder to let fall by the wayside than others. Over the last few years all three of the Ruby the Duckling books, written by me and illustrated by Rebecca Harry, have gone out of print. Both Rebeca and I were especially sorry to see these books go, so we decided to make an effort to put all three books back into print again.

One of the reasons I was personally keen to do this is that I’ve received more emails and letters about the first Ruby book, Ruby Flew Too! (titled Ruby in Her Own Time in the US) than any of my other books. Readers from all over the world have written to me to tell me how Ruby’s tale has touched their lives and given them comfort in what have often been extremely trying circumstances.

A spread from the new edition of Ruby Flew Too! Ruby’s story has touched the lives of readers all over the world.

Having done a bit of research and read a few articles like this one, Rebecca and I decided to re-publish the books as print-on-demand editions using Amazon’s Createspace service.

Although Rebecca and I owned the rights to the book’s text and illustrations, the typography and title lettering design of the original editions belonged to the original publisher, so we had to re-typeset the spreads (using open licence fonts) and create new title lettering for the covers. The typesetting of the new editions is similar to the originals as the text placement has to fit into the gaps in Rebecca’s original illustrations, but we took the opportunity to make a few changes here and there. Some of the spreads have been cropped slightly wider to show a little more of Rebecca’s artwork and we’ve added in a book plate page at the front and an “About the Author and Illustrator” page at the back. As such, the new editions could be seen as being the “Director’s Cut” versions of the books.

A spread from the new edition of Go For It, Ruby! The text has been re-typset and some of the spreads have been cropped slightly wider to show a little more of Rebecca’s artwork.

We did the first book on its own as a trial run and agreed that if either of us weren’t happy with the printed proof copy we would not make it, or any of the other books available. So when the proofs eventually arrived through the post, we were both relieved and impressed by the quality of the printing and binding.

We were impressed by the print quality of the new print-on-demand editions.

All three books are now available under the specially-created imprint of Hatchling Books. Rebecca has designed this lovely new logo …

… and we’ve set up a web site at hatchlingbooks.co.uk where you can find out about the books and download these free Ruby activity sheets. There's a colouring sheet, a board game, a spot the difference and a maze.

The whole exercise has been a bit of an experiment for Rebecca and myself. We’re hoping that books will continue to sell without a mainstream publisher to promote them, but only time will tell! We’d love to think that by making them available in this way, Ruby’s story will continue to entertain, inspire and comfort new readers.

One of my favourite spreads from the new edition of This Way, Ruby!

The books are available for £6.99, $9.99 Or €8.99 each through Amazon’s UK, US and European stores. US buyers can also purchase them at a 15% discount through the Hatchling Books eStore.

Click here to go to the Hatchling books web site