Rescuing Ruby

🚜🦉🎃📷

by Nicola Baker

★★★★*

Things I loved:

🌾 Ava’s farming adventures

🦉 Ruby the tawny owl

🌻 Real farm vocabulary

🍂 Gorgeous autumn illustrations

📚 Perfect autumn read

🐄 Vivid countryside life

🤝 Lessons in teamwork and trust

At a glance

✍🏼  Author: Nicola Baker

🎨 Illustrator: Rachael Dean

📅 Release Date: 28th August 2025

📚 Book type: Illustrated chapter, 336 pages (large font and spacing)

🌟 Reader level: Growing (7+)

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Review

Another gorgeous Whistledown Farm adventure by Nicola Baker!

This story is packed full of farm-specific vocabulary and fascinating real-life details, providing brilliant learning opportunities and sparking curiosity about where our food comes from and how farms work.

The illustrations are absolutely beautiful and tie in perfectly with the autumnal storyline. 

This book is absolutely perfect for Lower Key Stage 2 readers and makes a wonderful autumn read, especially as we begin our own harvest and Halloween celebrations. Nicola Baker’s storytelling captures the beauty and bustle of farm life, while her descriptions of the countryside, animals, and seasonal traditions make you feel as though you’re right there beside Ava.

Along the way, she learns about trust, teamwork, and what it truly means to be part of a community.

Blurb

Ten-year-old Ava has swapped city life for mud, wellies and animals on Whistledown Farm. With the arrival of Autumn and as the leaves begins to fall, she rescues a tawny owl called Ruby. As Ava helps Ruby, she soon realises that learning to love means letting go as well . . .

Ava continues to explore her growing love for farming life at Whistledown Farm, but this time, she’s joined by some new friends who introduce her to the fun and challenges that come with harvest season. With the annual Harvest Festival just around the corner, Ava is eager to prove herself by entering one of the famous farm competitions, all while rehabilitating Ruby, the sweet tawny owl, who has found herself in a spot of trouble!

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Illustrations

Meet the animals

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