A coming of age story set is a small Appalachian town. Enjoyable, but doesn't quite have the depth or dimensionality of Rylant's or Wiles's novels. Ruby was abandoned as a baby and appeared in town one day, to be adopted by Miss Arbutus, the matron of the local boarding house. Both the boarding house and the town are populated with quirky characters, including a rock-throwing granny reminiscent of the old woman in Milagro Beanfield Wars. During the course of the story, Ruby's origins are revealed, but things are wrapped up a little too neatly and quickly. Still, fans of Love, Ruby Lavender or Sharon Creech's Chasing Redbird will probably enjoy this.

Cute story, but there were way too many characters to follow. ( )

On the first day of summer in 1944, a red-haired toddler appears on the courtroom steps in Way Down Deep, West Virginia. Nobody knows who she is or how she got there. But Miss Arbus, the owner of the boardinghouse, swoops down and brings her home, and the rest of the town takes her to its collective bosom. Then, when Ruby turns 12, a desperate man tries to rob the bank. Way Down Deep takes in the poor soul and his family as well, not knowing that the newcomers are the key to Ruby's past. White, the author of Belle Prater's Boy (1996), Newbery Honor Book, returns to Appalachia for a story as tender as a breeze and as sharp as a tack. In leisurely fashion, she introduces a cavalcade of idiosyncratic characters who go in and out of Ruby's life--among them, Mrs. Rife, a 90-year-old who throws rocks at the kids, and Reese, who serenades Ruby with lines such as, "Now if you were a horsefly, and I'm an old grey mare, / I'd stand and let you bite me and never move a hair." White dabbles in magic realism here (the explanation of how Ruby came to town will vex some and delight others), but at the heart of the story are profound questions that readers will enjoy puzzling out: Who makes up a family? And what do you owe them? Category: Books for Older Readers--Fiction. 2007, Farrar, $16. Starred Review

White, Ruth. Way Down Deep. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2007.
Type: Fiction/Chapter Book
Annotation:
This is the story of a young girl named Ruby who is found abandoned, sitting on a sidewalk in the small town of Way Down, West Virginia. Miss Arbutus Ward, who runs the town boardinghouse, offers to take little Ruby in and care for her until her family is found. Ten years go by and Ruby grows into a beautiful, polite, and very friendly young girl and even though she loves her life in Way Down, she continues to wonder where she came from and who her parents are.
One day a stranger from Yonder Mountain, Virginia arrives in Way Down and recognizes Ruby’s curly red hair. He explains that Ruby’s parents had died when she was very young and that the little girl had inexplicably vanished from her grandmother’s house in the middle of the night. The matter is investigated and Ruby is sent back to live with her grandmother, a hateful old woman. While there Ruby learns all about her parents. To stifle her meanness, Ruby tell her grandmother stories of the people of Way Down until finally her grandmother decides to give up her hateful ways and move to Way Down with Ruby and live there in the boardinghouse. Ruby returns to the home and the people she loves and is no longer haunted by the mystery of the family she lost.
Review:
Recommendation
I would use this book with middle school grades because of its length (200 pages) and the complexity of the plot. Also, the first quarter of the book is somewhat difficult to get involved in and I think a lot of younger readers would quickly lose interest. The latter part of the book is much more enjoyable and engaging.
I would also recommend it for this age group because the story deals with personal relationships within a non-traditional family; Ruby is essentially raised by the town of Way Down. Middle school-age children would have a better appreciation and understanding of this concept.
Use
I would use this book especially with children going through some kind of familial identity crisis. Orphans, adopted children, or children being raised by a family member other than a parent would gain a great deal from this book and would most likely be able to relate to Ruby, the main character. This is not a book I would use in a classroom setting to help instruct a lesson. I would use this with individual students for independent reading and then discuss it on an individual basis as well.

In the West Virginia town of Way Down Deep in the 1950s, a foundling called Ruby June is happily living with Miss Arbutus at the local boarding house when suddenly, after the arrival of a family of outsiders, the mystery of Ruby's past begins to unravel.