Ruby in the Sky

Written by Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo

Narrated by Merissa Czyz

Courage can be found when you simply stand up

Twelve-year-old Ruby Moon Hayes does not want her new classmates to ask about her father. She does not want them to know her mother has been arrested.

And she definitely does not want to make any friends. Ruby just wants tostay as silent and invisible as a new moon in the frozen sky. She and her mother won’t be staying long in Vermont anyway, and then things can go back to the way
they were before everything went wrong.

But keeping to herself isn’t easy when Ahmad Saleem, a Syrian refugee, decides he’s her new best friend. Or when she meets “the Bird Lady,” a recluse named Abigail who lives in a ramshackle shed near Ruby’s house. Before long, Ahmad and
Abigail have become Ruby’s friends—and she realizes there is more to their stories than everyone knows.

As ugly rumors begin to swirl around the people Ruby loves, she must make a choice: break her silence, or risk losing everything that’s come to mean so much to her. Ruby in the Sky is a story of the walls we hide behind, and the magic that
can happen when we’re brave enough to break free.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705060872

Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo

Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo is the author of A Galaxy of Sea Stars and Ruby in the Sky, which earned two starred reviews and which Booklist called “quietly magical.” She is also a volunteer with IRIS-Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services in New Haven, Connecticut. She lives in Ellington, Connecticut, with her family.

Reviews for Ruby in the Sky

[bookwren · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of those "couldn't put down" novels with diverse, wonderful characters. I loved Ruby Moon Hayes (painfully shy, courageous), Ahmad Saleem (loyal, honest, spiritual, courageous), and Abigail Jacobs (highly intelligent, spiritual, courageous). Themes of courage, diversity, science, strong women, immigrants, grief, small-mindedness & prejudice, nature's healing, friendship, and community.

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ruby and her mother Dahlia have moved to Vermont to their latest “forever home.” Ruby longs to return to Washington DC where their real forever home was. She also knows how make herself less visible to others, being as inconspicuous as possible. But in a small town, not much is missed; Ruby is the subject of snarky remarks by the mayor’s daughter and her teacher Mr. Andrews encourages Ruby to use her voice in class because he knows she has something to say. Abigail Jacobs, the old woman who lives in a shed near Ruby’s home is even more invisible yet visible to the townspeople. Rumors fly about the deaths of her husband and daughter, and how weird she is. Ruby and Abigail become friends of sorts although Abigail never lets Ruby get too close. In the end both bring each other out of the shadows. A positive intergenerational story about discovering the layers in each other.