Ruby on the Outside by Nora Raleigh Baskin

• Genre:  Realistic Fiction
• Grade Level: 4th - 6th
• AR Reading Level: 4.5  (5 pt)
• Length:176 pages 
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (June 16, 2015)
• My Rating: 4 out of 4
• Readability:  Easy to read, more of a slower, introspective and emotional story.
• Division 2 and Crossover 

Ruby is 11 years old and has lived with her aunt since she was a small. Her single mother in in jail for at least 25 years as an accomplice to murder because of being at the crime scene with her boyfriend. The summer before middle school, Ruby makes a new friend in her condo complex.  It is the first time she has had such a great friendship but she fears that her past will catch up with her if she tells her friend about her life.

This novel shares the questions and emotional problems that Ruby faces about her past, her mother's past and how she deals with having a mother in prison.