I hated reading when I was younger. I struggled to read and didn't get it. It was the summer before 6th grade that I was just completely bored. I decided look through some of the books that my sister and I got from our cousins. That was when I started reading and never stopped. One of those first books was "Baked Beans for Breakfast". I loved it and was always one of my favorites. Ruth Chew is one of the authors that helped me to love reading.

I just really loved reading Ruth Chew in the the 70's growing up. My son is enjoying them this summer immensely. I have such an affection for them and am surprised and saddened to learn they are out of print. Hopefully that will change at some point. They are timeless.

Ruth Chew was a favorite author of mine when was I was younger - I read most of her books several times. Recently I bought quite a few books for my children to read ( and for me to reread :) ) Great imagination

i recall reading several of these books when i was a child in the early seventies. i found them entertaining and amusing.

I have been a huge fan of Ruth Chew's works since I was a kid in the 80's. I scored a copy of "Do It Yourself Magic" from a book order in 1st grade and had to have read it a hundred times. It is my favorite of her works. Throughout grade school I moved around a lot and every teacher I ever had, had at least 5 Ruth Chew books I had not read. So it was always great, in those awkward new school moments, to have some new Ruth Chew material to read time and time again. Now here I am in my late 20's scouring yard sales, thrift stores and book sales for all the Ruth Chew titles, and various editions of said titles, that I can get my paws on. I could just order them online, but that kind of takes the mystique of finding them away. RIP Ruth, you rocked my 80's and 90's., and still rock me today!

My 6 year old son is currently reading as many of Ruth's wonderful books as he can find. Luckily my mother kept all of my childhood copies. I came here to tell Ruth Chew that another generation is in love with her stories. So sad to hear that she has passed on. Her stories will pass on to the following generations. Yes, it would be lovely to see the books in local bookstores. She really understood the way the small child dreams of adventure.

I am 40 years old now and remember reading Baked Beans for Breakfast when I was a child. In fact, it was the very first book I read cover to cover.

My sister and I are in our 30's and we both remembered parts of the story Earthstar magic. For awhile we have been trying to remeber the actual name and author of the book we read as a child. Today I saw a book for sale in passing by Ruth Chew and I wondered if she was the author of the book we were trying to remember. Thanks to this website, the mystery is solved. Ruth wrote such wonderful books that we remeber the stories even as grown ups! Now I can share the book with my daughter!

I loved Ruth Chew books when I was little and I saved all of my books for my daughter who is now nine years old. I was sorry to see Ruth recently passed. I think they should start selling her books in stores again. They are so much better than most of what is out there now.

Thank you so much for putting together this website. However, I was so sad to open it up this morning and read that she just died. I have been wanting to write her a fan letter for a few years and now I've missed my chance. She was such a neat lady. My sister and I grew up reading her books - they are exactly as you describe - gentle. I always loved her illustrations, too.

I hope Scholastic and her family will consider getting her work reprinted - it is so wonderful.

I remember the first Ruth Chew book that I had the pleasure to read. When I was a child I found a copy of "What the Witch Left" at a yard sale. I read it and was quickly hooked! The story was so much fun and well written. As an adult I now have a collection of her books and cannot wait until my son is old enough to introduce him to the wonderful stories that I have set aside.

I am sorry that Ruth has passed on, but she has left a wonderful legacy for many children.

My experiences with and thoughts on Ruth Chew's books:

Ruth Chew's books are at the youngest end of the spectrum of children's books that I read. I rediscovered Ruth Chew's books when I found a couple of them while shopping for used books, and all the memories came back. I found I could remember individual characters, scenes, and events from some of the stories I had read when I was much much younger. These books are short chapter books (about 120 pages) illustrated beautifully by the author.

I have noticed that the type of magic Ruth Chew writes about is fairly consistent, and fairly consistently appealing to a young imagination. All her stories involve one or more of the following themes or ideas: size or shape changing, flying, a magic object that behaves unpredictably, a misfit witch or wizard, being in a different time or place, and/or talking to and making friends with animals. The protagonists are always a brother and a sister, or two friends, who share the adventure. Often they live in New York City.

There do seem to be two distinct categories of books among her works. There are the kind which are full of magical happenings, and there are the kind which involve no magic except for a trip back in time. The books in this second category are more historical and educational in nature. This category includes the books Last Chance for Magic, Royal Magic, Summer Magic, Magic of the Black Mirror, Trapped in Time and Wrong Way Around Magic. Then there's Baked Beans for Breakfast aka The Secret Summer. This book has absolutely no magic at all - it's just about two kids who run away from home. Arguably, freedom is its own kind of magic...

One thing I really like about Ruth Chew's books is that there is always a tidy plot. There is a friend to be made or a problem to be solved. However, the plot is never such that everything goes back to normal at the end of the book: there is always something gained at the end of the story. The last page of every book seems to wink and say, "Now, wasn't that worthwhile?"

A note to the excessively protective or politically correct: Yes, Ruth Chew did write about witches and wizards and covens and broomsticks and black cats. Have no fear of these witches. If anything, they will teach young readers the values of friendship, independence, and self-esteem, since that's what the books are really about.