Ruby's Little Robber Girl

The words "little robber girl" appear only twice in The Beat on Ruby's Street, in reference to how the local fruit seller sees Ruby--but that wasn't always the case. In earlier drafts, Ruby refers to her favorite fairy tale, Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen--and how Ruby's mother used to read her that story. I couldn't quite make that section work the way I wanted, so I took it out.

The little robber girl stayed with me, though, as subtext throughout the book. You probably won't be surprised to hear that The Snow Queen was one of my very favorite stories as a child. I loved the idea of demons distorting the little boy Kai's vision, and how the Snow Queen took him and froze his heart--not out of malice, as I remember. I think she was just looking for a child, and being made of ice herself, froze everything she touched?

At least, that's how I remember it.

I also loved how Kai's friend Gerda looked everywhere for him, leaving home and traveling to the far North, until everything around her was swallowed by ice and snow. I thought it was really cool that she persisted and brought her friend home again.

But what I loved best about that story, and I'm not even really sure why, is the little robber girl. When Gerda gis set on by some really menacing robbers, the robber girl persuades her evil mother to let Gerda become the robber girl's friend. She doesn't quite know how to be a friend, as her life is full of turmoil because she has to live with criminals.

But this little girl's toughness in the face of great adversity always attracted me. It was very different than I was -- I think I was really a scaredy-cat growing up -- but I always had the goal of toughening up and being braver.

The little robber girl is dark, funny, courageous, and persistent. She doesn't give up easily, and yet she has the ability to love and care about others very deeply. Though she wants little Gerda very badly as a friend, she helps her escape on the back of a reindeer when she learns how important Kai is to Gerda.

Those were all traits I wanted my character Ruby to have. I thought of her like a tween-aged little robber girl, though there is no reference to it in the book. I think what I love best about the character, though, is that she is neither all good or all bad. She has ambivalences--and she goes back and forth between being wonderful or bad--like most of us.

When it comes to children, fairy tales do them a disservice, I think, by trying to make them into angels when children are so much more complex. And too many stories value "likability" over layering the characters so you can see real people in their thoughts and actions.

The little robber girl was one of the first to throw out the idea of a perfect little girl and replace her with someone interesting. And for that, I'll always be grateful to Hans Christian Andersen--whose stories are so much larger than we give them credit for.

Dark eyed girl photo:  Rachel a. k.

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