Ruby on the Outside Teacher Guide

Discussion Guide for Nora Raleigh Baskin’s Ruby on the Outside

Think about the Dedication, Acknowledgments, and Cover art while you read.

The Dedication echoes the importance of friendship that we see throughout the novel. How is Ruby’s experience with Margalit similar to Nora Baskin’s with her friend Jill?

What do we learn in the first paragraph of the Acknowledgments that helps us to think about how real world experiences shape the fictional world that Ruby inhabits?

The Cover art for this book reflects the title and Ruby’s life circumstances. Think about the Cover art as you read the book. Why are there silhouettes of two children holding hands and walking a dog? What does the little dog symbol make you think about when you come to each new chapter in the book?

Close Reading (Think about and talk about a few, some, or all of these questions.)

Chapter 1

What’s in a name? The name “Matoo” immediately captures the reader’s attention. What do you make of that name? Think about Ruby’s name as you read. Is it ironic that Ruby is named after a jewel given her circumstances?

The word “normal” is important to Ruby. What is “normal” for her? Does normal change for her over time?

Why is Ruby’s dog Loulou an important character in the novel? What comparison can be made between life as Ruby’s dog and life in prison? What does it mean to control a dog? A prisoner? Does this analogy work for you as a reader?

Nora Baskin has done a lot of research for this book. She presents many details about being a visitor to the prison. What kinds of controls are exerted in the prison for visitors? What are the procedures for gaining admittance to the prison? How do you think you would feel if you were visiting a prison? What would it be like to have so many logistics—so many steps that have to be taken before you could see your family member or friend?

Ruby’s mother tells her that she will be home “Soon”. Why do you think her mother says that? What long-term affects does the concept of soon have on Ruby?

Why does Matoo want Ruby to stop asking her mother when she is coming home?

If you were a relative of a child in need of a home, could you, would you,    be willing and able to take that child in? Could you offer love and act as an additional Mom?

Chapter 2

What is Ruby’s secret? How do some of the procedures at school make it difficult for children who don’t live with mom?

How does Matoo’s name offer Ruby some protection?

What is it about Margalit’s personality that captures Ruby’s attention? What does she look like? What intrigues Ruby the most about Margalit’s behavior?

Chapter 3

Does Ruby care about Matoo’s feelings? Why does Ruby feel extreme guilt when she pretends to be sick?

How does Margalit start up a friendship with Ruby?

Chapter 4

Why does Matoo ask Ruby about getting a haircut?

Describe Matoo based on what we have learned about her in the first few chapters.

Why does Matoo think Ruby should smile more?

Chapter 5

Why is the lack of privacy so difficult in prison? What impact does it have on the prisoners? Visitors? How would you feel if you lost all ability to have private moments?

Is Nick Ruby’s real father? Describe Nick.

Chapter 6

Why does Ruby pretend to be bored when she isn’t? Do you ever try to act like another person or behave in a way that will please someone else?

Why do you think Ruby suggests that they ask Elise if she wants to play too?

Chapter 7

Why does Ruby love the Christmas picture so much even though “all of it was fake”?

How do you feel when you read that Ruby’s mother has to brush Ruby’s hair with her fingers because no hairbrushes are allowed?

When Ruby says that the name Tipps sounds familiar—do you have a sense that her inside world and her outside world are about to collide?

Chapter 8

Why do you think Ruby’s mother “would have done anything” for her husband (p. 47)?

We don’t learn Ruby’s mother’s name until page 50 when Matoo calls her Janis. Did you feel surprised to learn her name? Do you think Nora Baskin did that for an emotional effect?

Why does Nick get a lesser sentence than Janis?

Chapter 9

Compare Margalit’s house and Ruby’s house. How are they different? How do these differences reflect the two children’s life circumstances?

Chapter 10

Ruby notices details about her surroundings. How does she show empathy or awareness of how limited her mother’s life is?

Why do Margalit and Ruby title their story “To be continued”?

Chapter 11

What does Tevin’s story and Ruby’s interactions with him help us to learn about her?

How are Tevin’s mother’s and Ruby’s mother’s stories similar? Do you believe that Tevin has been told the true story?

Chapter 12

Why do some people go to prison and others don’t?

What messages or advice does Ruby get from her mother about how to live her life?

Why does Ruby try so hard to be a good student?

How has the death of Margalit’s brother affected her life?

Chapter 13

Close your eyes. Imagine you are 5 years old. You hear loud and unrecognizable noises. The police are there. What do you think Ruby is feeling?

Was it irresponsible of Ruby’s mother to leave her alone?

Chapter 14

Are there any ways that life in middle school is like a prison?

Chapter 15

Why does the chapter end … “His name was Joshua Allan Tipps”?

When Ruby thinks that Josh Tipps is Margalit’s brother, do you think that she is correct?

Chapter 16

What does Ruby miss most about her mother?

Are her feelings about her mother changing?

Chapter 17

Why does Ruby write (in the story she is creating with Margalit) that her mother died?  How does Margalit react?

Chapter 18

Ruby is afraid that she will do something bad because it is in her DNA.  Do you think you would have the same concern if someone you were related to had committed a crime?

How does the treatment of visitors and prisoners dehumanize them?

Chapter 19

How does the incident in school with Ruby and the pencil confirm that life is not fair? How is detention like a prison?

Chapter 20

Why aren’t visitors allowed to wear anything green?

Why does Ruby get so upset with her mother?

Chapter 21

We learn of Ruby’s mother’s situation growing up. How does that help to explain how she behaves as an adult?

Where is Ruby’s father?

Does it seem too far-fetched that Margalit’s brother would have the same first and last name as the boy who was murdered in the pharmacy?

Chapter 22

How does Margalit react when Ruby tells her that her mom is in prison?

Chapter 23

How does life imitate art imitating life in Ruby on the Outside?

How does writing help Ruby?

Why isn’t Ruby jealous of Kristin’s phone?

How does Kristin react when Ruby tells her that her mother is in prison?

The last word of the novel is “normal”? Why is normal so important to Ruby?

What is the “so what” of Ruby on the Outside? (Refer to “That’s an interesting series of events, but so what? Chapter 12, p. 76)

Words and Phrases to Savor: 

Delight in repeating these words and phrases. Read them aloud. Think about the word choices Nora has made and how the sound and sense of words that are well-chosen can be so rewarding to read.

p. 26  “clipped, cryptic sentences about things they thought I didn’t understand”

p. 33 “his laughing lessened to a chuckle”

p. 38 “a big, thick tree, with its root gnarled and poking out of the ground all around the base, like giant bark fingers”

p. 38 “maybe that’ll be another benefit to being my friend”

p. 40 inevitable,   reciprocate

p. 41 “lots of red flags”       “hand-me-down”

p. 48 “a memory was triggered”      “little shots of bright white lights darting around”

p. 50 “Matoo started shaking her head in some silent sister communication …”

p. 51 ratted,     exchange

p. 52 identical,   balcony,    randomly,  antique-looking

p. 53      “Some are downright smushed to smithereens.”

p.  55 “… a free spirit. An open book. An open heart with lots of colors.”

p. 57 encourage

p. 59 “because it’s pretty dingy”      “a steady drip of water in three places plunking down …”

p. 60 “creates chaos”

p. 62 slouched,    sarcastic

p.63 blurt

p. 65 “the sunlight glistening and sparkling off every wet surface, every leaf and blade of grass”

p. 65 “My toes are squishing in my soaking socks.”

p. 71 “You have to make it through that whole first year.”

p. 78 ponder,  impressed

p. 83 “the sound of our front door cracking off its hinges—splintering, cracking, breaking, booming, shattering …”

p. 84 vaguely

p. 85 continental shift

p. 87 infamously

p. 90 “‘criminal justice’ is an oxymoron”

p. 94 beacon

p. 95 accessory,   accomplice

p. 97 perfected

p. 99 “mortified expression”

p. 107 voluntary,   involuntary

p. 108 “old bait and switch”

p. 112 crumbling,   deserted,   haunted,     indescribably

p. 115 staggered

p. 121 repercussions,    consequences

p. 127 colliding, consent, recognition

p. 128 infectious,  steely,   stiffen

p. 129 “outbursts of excessive emotion”        beeline,   procedures

p. 131 slithers

p. 152 smuggling

p. 159 confided  (A GREAT WORD TO END THE LIST!) 

Quotes for Close Reading and Discussion:   Pick a line or lines to read aloud and share your reactions.

“Please,” I said. “Please can I take my mommy home with me today? I know it’s been soon.”  Chapter 1, p. 7

“But this girl just strolled slowly like she wasn’t worried about being seen or being seen not looking perfect, which made her look, well, look perfect.”  Chapter 2, p. 12

“Margalit’s a weirdo, so you’re better off not knowing her.” Chapter 2, p. 12

“We don’t have so much time together, Ruby. So when we are together there is no pretending.” Chapter 3, p. 18

“I was already forgetting my mother, it had been so long, nearly a year since she was arrested.” Chapter 4, p. 23

“My mother was not coming home. And from then on, everything shifted from waiting to coping.” Chapter 5, p. 27

“Each time the big metal door would clank open, everyone else would look up, hoping it was their person, finally coming in. I could hear that noise anywhere in the world and I would know what it was.”  Chapter 5, p. 28

“I know what it feels like to sit alone and feel left out, watching other kids hanging out with their best friends. But in this moment, now that I don’t have to be doing that, I can see how sad that is for someone else.” Chapter 6, p. 37

“He had all the lines, but that’s all they were. Lines.” Chapter 8, p. 46

“She didn’t have anything to give them in exchange for a lighter sentence. They didn’t even offer her a plea bargain.” Chapter 8, p. 51

“On the outside, it would have been pretty bad for a boy to cry in public like that , but in here, we all understand, and no one even looks at you sideways if you’re crying.” Chapter 11, p. 68

“I liked to believe that Tevin’s mother had a new trial and they found her innocent and they all went home from Albion together. Like a magical storybook with a happy ending. I like to believe that.” Chapter 11, p. 74

“Ruby, you know you can’t call your mother,” Matoo told me. “You know it doesn’t work that way. She has to call us.”  Chapter 16, p. 98

“It’s all just a matter of keeping that lid on the pot so it doesn’t boil over and mess up the stovetop.” Chapter 17, p. 105

“And if I looked like my mother on the outside, did that mean I was going to be like her on the inside?” Chapter 18, p. 111

“That is the number my mother has to recite when they do a count. Twice a day, every day, or more if they need to. Not Janis Danes, her maiden name. Not even Janis Sands, her married name. But prisoner 556731.”  Chapter 18, p. 117

“Maybe if my mother had loved me more than she wanted Nick to love her, none of this would have happened at all … she wouldn’t have let it happen.” Chapter 20, p. 125

“Here, nothing is strange. No one is judged because everyone has been judged already.” Chapter 21, p. 133

“But it was like he was offering her a drink of water and she was so terribly thirsty. She had been walking in the desert all her life.” Chapter 21, p. 135

“They are not the same people. It’s just one of those crazy things. It’s just a name.” Chapter 21, p. 137

“Someone else makes every decision for her. Every choice about her life is made by someone else. Something else.” Chapter 22, p. 140

“ … I think when you are trying so hard to hide your own truth, it’s hard to see anyone else’s.” Chapter 23, p. 149

“They will read my story, my very private story.” Chapter 24, p. 153

“It’s like watching someone get bullied in school and not doing anything about it, just because you’re scared.” Chapter 24, p. 156

…

“When my mother is released from prison I will be thirty-one years old.” Chapter 24, p. 158

About the Author

Nora Raleigh Baskin is the ALA Schneider Family Book Award-winning author of Anything But Typical. She was chosen as a Publisher’s Weekly Flying Start for her novel What Every Girl (Except Me) Knows, and has since written a number of novels for middle graders and teens, including The Truth About My Bat Mitzvah, The Summer Before Boys, and Runt. Nora lives with her family in Connecticut. Visit her at norabaskin.com.

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