Author tells a tale from her Hannibal childhood

Published 2:55 pm Tuesday, June 16, 2026

HANNIBAL, Mo. —As a pre-kindergarten teacher, Ruby Stallings read aloud some good, and some not-so-good, books to her students.

Then Stallings decided she could write her own.

“I felt like I could write something that would be memorable for kids to listen to or read, where they could use their imagination, dream big and also a book that would incorporate my father,” Stallings said.

“I really admired him. I looked up to him, really appreciate the things he passed down, the morals, the values. He taught me to dream big, persevere, work hard.”

The recently-published “The Shoop Shoop Up and Down Truck,” dedicated to the late Rueben James Stallings, tells a story from Stallings’ childhood in Hannibal, Mo., as her father worked with his beloved first truck to build a business, R.J. Stallings and Sons, to support the family.

“Dad had a sense of humor. He named it the Shoop Shoop Up and Down Truck. That’s where I got the name. He always gave people nicknames,” Stallings said.

Stallings hopes readers find the fun in the story, which is narrated by the Shoop Shoop truck.

“It’s different, with the truck telling the story. You have to use your imagination, your curiosity. What are Daddy and the truck going to do?” Stallings said.

“I had a church member that just ordered the book who said ‘Ruby, I was smiling from beginning to end.’ That’s what I want — for readers to smile from beginning to end and for children (to gain) just the early literacy,” Stallings said. “It’s a rhyming book. It helps children learn to read.”

Growing up in Hannibal, Stallings remembers a second-grade teacher at Mark Twain School who encouraged her to read, which led to a desire to teach others. She graduated from Truman State University with an early childhood degree and spent three decades in Texas as a kindergarten and pre-K teacher as well as directing a Head Start program.

When her last job ended, family members encouraged her to move back to Missouri, and she now lives in St. Peters and works as a special education teacher’s aide in the Fort Zumwalt school district.

Stallings wrote the book over eight years, putting it aside more than once and repeatedly reading it to family members and her students while working with an illustrator and a designer.

“The hardest part was the publishing,” she said.

But when tempted to forget about the project, “I thought about my father,” she said. “He had a vision. He persevered. When growing up, he always told us don’t give up.”

Stalling’s father was a Georgia native who grew up during the Great Depression, served in the Army in World War II then migrated to the Hannibal area where he met his future wife and faced challenges as a Black man trying to start a waste hauling business.

So she did just what he did — persevered and reached her goal.

A second book, another story from her childhood, is in the works.

“I have to add a few more lines and pages and find an illustrator,” she said. “I plan to do a series.”

More Information

Ruby Stallings’ newly-released children’s picture book, “The Shoop Shoop Up and Down Truck,” is available on Amazon and other online outlets.