Ruby and her mother have had a hard time adjusting since Ruby's father was killed while working as a policeman. Now they have moved to the little town her mother is from and they still run into problems. Ruby refuses to speak most of the time and thinks returning home will make things good again, and her mother stands up to a bully and gets arrested. The mysterious and scary old woman living in a shed next to a boarded-up house gradually builds a connection to Ruby and her story may hold clues and lessons for a rebuilding of all their lives.

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Ruby and her mother Dahlia have moved a lot since her dad is gone, but their last move takes them from Florida to a small town in Vermont where Dahlia was raised. Her aunt Cecy helps out, especially after Dahlia is arrested for a workplace incident of harassment for which she is wrongly accused of assault. Ruby isn't wild about her new school, since there are some mean girls who make fun of her clothes and her silence, but she knows that flying under the radar is the way to go. She does slowly warm to Ahmad, a recent refugee from Syria, especially after his uncle hires her mother to work at his store. Ruby finds it difficult to become invested in the Wax Museum project her class is assigned, even though she is interested in her subject, astronaut Michael Collins. Near her run-down rental house, Ruby has met the local Bird Lady, Abigail, who lives in a shed near her former house, having suffered a family tragedy in the 1970s. As she works on her project, Ruby also investigates Abigail's past, and finds out that she worked with the computers that helped with the moon launch. Her mother's trial is the same day as the Wax Museum, and the local government has put a law in place to remove Abigail from her property, so things become a bit fraught in Ruby's world. Luckily, with the help of her supportive friends and family, she and her mother manage to make it through and find a new path forward for themselves.

Strengths: This hits the hard-to-define sweet spot for sad stories for my students. It has the novelty of a parent arrested for a somewhat minor offense but who is nonetheless in danger of going to jail. Ruby's method of coping with her new school-- withdrawing, trying not to speak-- is one that I see all too often. It's good to see that even though the place the two are renting may be cold, Ruby's aunt brings food and warm thrift store clothing to them. I especially liked that even though there were a LOT of sad things, Ruby was fairly positive, even if some of those thoughts were set on going back to Washington, D.C., which never seemed like a likely ending for the family. Ahmad and his uncle are great characters, and I especially enjoyed the interchange where Ruby tells Ahmad he was lucky for only having to go to school two hours a day... until he tells her that school had to be over by 8:00 a.m. because that's when the bombing started! Ruby may have it tough, but Ahmad and his uncle have had it far tougher. I did cry at one point, even though the part at which I cried was a tiny bit cheesy.
Weaknesses: It's hard to believe that Abigail would have spent forty years living in a shed; again, there's that portrayal of grieving parents as being unable to cope that I find insulting. There are a lot of things that come together in a rather unrealistic way, but this is a generally interesting and upbeat book.
What I really think: Definitely purchasing for fans of Vrabel's Bringing Me Back, Arnold's Far From Fair, Sand-Eveland's Tinfoil Sky and Pla's The Someday Birds.