Ruby lost and found

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Ruby lost and found

Title :

Ruby lost and found / Christina Li.

Title:

Ruby lost and found

Author:

Li, Christina

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

288 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

ISBN:

9780063008939

Production / Publication Information:

New York, NY : Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2023]

Summary:

"Thanks to her Ye-Ye's epic scavenger hunts, thirteen-year-old Ruby Chu knows San Francisco like the back of her hand. But after his death, she feels lost, and it seems like everyone--from her best friends to her older sister--is abandoning her. After Ruby gets in major trouble at school, her parents decide she has to spend the summer at a local senior center, with her grandmother, Nai-Nai, and Nai-Nai's friends for company. When a new boy from Ruby's grade, Liam Yeung, starts showing up too, Ruby's humiliation is complete. But Nai-Nai, her friends, and Liam all surprise Ruby. She finds herself working with Liam, who might not be as annoying as he seems, to help save a historic Chinatown bakery that's being priced out of the neighborhood. And alongside Nai-Nai, who is keeping a secret that threatens to change everything, Ruby retraces Ye-Ye's scavenger hunt maps in an attempt to find a way out of her grief--and maybe even find herself.

Language:

English

Geographic Term:

Chinatown (San Francisco, Calif.) -- Juvenile fiction.

Subject Term:

Asian Americans -- Juvenile fiction.

Grandparents -- Juvenile fiction.

Grief -- Juvenile fiction.

Bakeries -- Juvenile fiction.

JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Friendship.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Amesbury Public Library	J FIC LI	32114002769223	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library Children's Room	J LI	31330009316237	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Billerica Public Library	YA/LI	33934004640968	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Burlington Public Library	J LI	32116004042327	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Carlisle - Gleason Public Library	J LI	32117002186843	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Chelmsford Public Library	J/FIC/LI	31480011669923	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Georgetown Peabody Library	J LI	32120001455813	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Groton Public Library	YA MG LI	37003702002073	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Hamilton-Wenham Public Library	J LI	30470002160371	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Haverhill Public Library	J/FIC/LI	31479007633364	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Ipswich Public Library	J LI	32122003025404	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Littleton - Reuben Hoar Library	J F LI	39965002453040	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Middleton - Flint Public Library	J LI	32126001913750	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newburyport Public Library	TWEEN LI	32128004183944	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Rowley Public Library	J FIC LI	32130001069456	Searching... Unknown
New books	Searching... Tewksbury Public Library	TEEN FICTION LI	32132003405456	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Topsfield Town Library	J LI	32133002693449	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... West Newbury - G.A.R. Memorial Library	J LI	32135001596978	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library	MG F LI	31990005280016	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Wilmington Memorial Library	KIDS FICTION LI	32136003614363	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

For fans of Kelly Yang and Rebecca Stead, this touching middle grade novel maps one girl's quest to remember her grandfather through his scavenger hunts; reconnect with her family; and fight for her community in her rapidly changing hometown. Winner of the APALA Youth Literature Award!

Thanks to her Ye-Ye's epic scavenger hunts, thirteen-year-old Ruby Chu knows San Francisco like the back of her hand. But after his death, she feels lost, and it seems like everyone--from her best friends to her older sister--is abandoning her.

After Ruby gets in major trouble at school, her parents decide she has to spend the summer at a local senior center with her grandmother, Nai-Nai, and Nai-Nai's friends for company. When a new boy from Ruby's grade, Liam Yeung, starts showing up too, Ruby's humiliation is complete.

But Nai-Nai, her friends, and Liam all surprise Ruby. She finds herself working with Liam, who might not be as annoying as he seems, to help save a historic Chinatown bakery that's being priced out of the neighborhood. And alongside Nai-Nai, who is keeping a secret that threatens to change everything, Ruby retraces Ye-Ye's scavenger hunt maps in an attempt to find a way out of her grief--and maybe even find herself.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In an affecting contemporary novel from Li (Clues to the Universe), Chinese American Ruby Chu, 13, struggles to process the death of her beloved paternal grandfather, Ye-Ye; her sister's impending departure for college; and the splintering of her friend group. After Ruby gets in trouble for ditching school, her parents decide that she will spend summer weekdays and weeknights with her Nai-Nai, who lives near San Francisco's Chinatown. Despite some initial awkwardness, Ruby finds comfort and stability in the routine of visiting Nai-Nai's friends at the senior recreation center, where she also befriends schoolmate Liam Yeung. But the news that May's Bakery--a Chinatown institution as well as a beloved spot for Ruby and Ye-Ye--may sell to developers, and Nai-Nai's worsening memory, threaten Ruby's fragile peace. Interspersing the present-day narrative with past scenes of Ruby and Ye-Ye's time together, Li balances youthful optimism as Ruby and Liam seek to save the bakery with harder realities as Ruby contends with her guilt about Ye-Ye's death and her own grief. It's an economically told, emotionally driven story that deftly incorporates multiple strands--around community care, gentrification, and the messy parts of familial change--while representing an inclusive Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking Chinatown community. Ages 8--12. Agent: Jessica Regel, Helm Literary. (May)

Horn Book Review

Thirteen-year-old Ruby Chu is grieving the death of Ye-Ye, her paternal grandfather, who would devise elaborate scavenger hunts around San Francisco's Chinatown for her. Ruby has also lost her best friends Mia, who moved away, and Naomi, who has become closer with her soccer teammates. Even her sister, Viv, is moving across the country for college at the end of the summer. When Ruby gets caught ditching school, her parents send her off to Nai-Nai's house for the summer. She spends the weekdays with her grandmother, visiting her friends ("a bunch of old Chinese ladies") at the senior center, making tea, and watching Chinese dramas. An otherwise boring summer is interrupted when a newcomer, Liam, also no stranger to grief, appears at the senior center with his Maa-Maa. Summer slowly rolls on, Nai-Nai begins exhibiting signs of dementia, and Ye-Ye's favorite bakery, a staple of Chinatown, threatens to close due to development. What begins as an isolating and overwhelming journey through grief turns hopeful as Ruby makes new friends, opens up to the people she loves most, and learns that she doesn't have to navigate change alone. (c) Copyright 2024. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

Big feelings are uncomfortable but to be expected in this story of finding joy and community amid change and loss. With her best friend, Mia Ortega-Anderson, moving across the country to New York, Chinese American Ruby Chu was already afraid of seventh grade, but nothing prepared her for another close friend drifting away and the unexpected death of her beloved paternal grandfather. After Ruby's caught ditching school, her parents decide she'll spend summer weekdays with Nai-Nai, her paternal grandmother. At first reluctant to stay somewhere her grandfather is noticeably absent, Ruby's walls lower as she and Nai-Nai speak openly about their grief. As Ruby begins to open up and find a comfortable routine, more big changes threaten her fragile sense of safety. When a family friend's bakery is poised for closure, Ruby and classmate Liam Yeung set out to save it. The San Francisco Chinatown community is realistically presented: Mandarin and Cantonese are spoken, not every older adult is an immigrant, and a variety of professions and experiences are portrayed. It's unclear if impulsive, restless Ruby, who struggles in school, is neurodiverse or just stands out compared to the rest of her driven, focused family. Readers will identify with Ruby's roller coaster of emotions amid the challenges of growing up: loved ones leaving, friendships waning, and fitting into the world authentically. Ruby is incredibly self-aware, and her emotions are given space and validity without excusing harm done. Empathetic and emotionally intelligent. (Fiction. 9-13) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Grieving for her beloved grandfather, who died in January, 13-year-old Ruby also misses her two best friends (one moved from San Francisco to New York City, the other to the girls' soccer table in the lunchroom). Still, in retrospect, getting caught ditching school during lunchtime just weeks before summer vacation wasn't smart, as her parents grounded her until summer, which she must spend mainly with Nai-Nai, her grandmother, who lives nearby in Chinatown. Gradually, she begins to enjoy being with Nai-Nai and her friends at a nearby senior center and getting to know a classmate who volunteers there. Ruby's concerns about Nai-Nai's memory escalate when her grandmother gets lost close to home. Eventually, Ruby's parents begin to readjust their thinking. Reflecting Li's knowledge of Chinese American immigrant culture, Ruby's first-person narrative is particularly engaging when she begins retracing her steps from her grandfather's legendary scavenger hunts and, with her grandmother, shares a moment of healing and unity with the past. Vividly imagined characters, relationships, and family dynamics are at the heart of this involving novel, in which building tension causes troubles that seem to dissipate but then lead to a crisis that cannot be ignored. A moving, intergenerational story with a narrator who becomes increasingly aware of others.