Ruby Lost and Found

An NPR and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year

It’s the summer after seventh grade, and Ruby Chu is feeling more lost than ever.

Her best friends aren’t speaking to her. She ended the year in detention. Her sister’s about to leave for college. Ruby’s still grieving her grandfather, Ye-Ye, when it seems like no one else is. And without Ye-Ye and his annual scavenger hunts across their hometown of San Francisco, their hometown doesn’t really feel like home anymore.

Things get worse when Ruby’s forced to spend the summer with her distant grandmother, Nai-Nai, in Chinatown. But the looming shutdown of a beloved former scavenger hunt stop, May’s Bakery, and a secret about Nai-Nai threaten to change everything. Though Ruby feels out of place, maybe this summer of forming unexpected friendships and fighting to save the bakery will help Ruby reconnect with the world — and discover what it means to find home again.

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Praise for Ruby Lost and Found:

“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.”

– Kirkus, Starred Review

“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.”

– Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review

“A moving, intergenerational story with a narrator who becomes increasingly aware of others.”

– Booklist, Starred Review