Toni Jannotta 
My Little Heart, Ruthie 

My Little Heart, Ruthie is the story of a wounded heart living alone in a cold, icy cell with only her harp for company. One day a warm breeze blows into her cell and so startles Ruthie that she gathers her courage and goes to see what this beautiful feeling is all about, nearly breaking free of her confinement. The breeze turns out to be a fellow heart warming up on his trumpet. This jazz guy named Clyde turns out to be a friend with whom Ruthie can share her darkest secrets. Their conversation told both musically and in rhyme leads Ruthie to discover that her suffering is self imposed and that she has the right to be free. Told as a children’s rhyme, this story speaks to the child inside of every person who believes that past abuses happened because they did something wrong, and it tries to convince them that it was never their fault.