No-Good Day! Ruthie and the (Not So) Busy Day by Laura Rankin

SATURDAY!

RUTHIE WAKES UP.

NO SCHOOL, NO HOMEWORK--JUST FUN--WITH MOM AND PAPA.

Ruthie's Saturday plans are modest--but great--plans.

She wants to make blueberry pancakes with Papa and help him plant flowers. She wants to make cookies with Mom.  And she wants to watch her favorite cartoon show.

THE BEST KIND OF DAY!

But just as Papa is stirring up the pancakes and Ruthie is about to add the berries, the news comes that Gramma needs Papa, fast!.  Her basement is flooded.

There go the family pancakes and gardening with Dad. Ruthie is not thrilled with soggy cereal instead, but that is the way it goes.

Then Mom remembers that her mean cousin Buster's birthday is this afternoon. Ruthie's favorite polka-dotted party dress needs washing and they have to hurry out to buy Buster a gift.

The car gets stuck in traffic and Ruthie realizes what time it is.

"I'M MISSING MY SHOW!" SAID RUTHIE.

"STOP KICKING MY SEAT!" MOM COMPLAINED.

"THIS IS NOT THE DAY I WANTED!" RUTHIE WHINED.

"IT'S NOT EXACTLY THE DAY I WANTED, EITHER!" MOM SAID.

Back home the bad luck continues. The washer breaks down and Ruthie's best dress is a soggy, sudsy mess. Ruthie drops the eggs. There go the cookies!

Just as Ruthie stomps off to sulk behind the shrubbery, Mom notices that one of her tires is going flat!

More bad luck!! Or... is it?

Suddenly, Ruthie and Mom realize that they are off the hook. The rest of the day is theirs to enjoy, and they do, in Laura Rankin's second Ruthie story, Ruthie and the (Not So) Very Busy Day (Bloomsbury Books, 2014). Rankin's Ruthie is an adorable little fox girl in a regular family in which the best of plans can go off track and Mom, Dad, and Ruthie have to come up with Plan B!

Laura Rankin's first book in this series is Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie.