47 pages • 1 hour read
Katherine ApplegateThe One and Only Ruby
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “My Big Little Problem”
No one ever listens to Ruby, the littlest elephant.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Brave”
When Ruby tries to play in the water or slap it with her trunk to check for crocodiles, an adult pulls her away.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Nicknames”
Ruby resents being called Tusky, a nickname traditionally given to elephants when their tusks start growing in.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Don’t Tell Anyone”
Ruby secretly hates her tusks.
Chapter 5 Summary: “All About Tusks”
Ruby explains that African elephants grow tusks, and that the growth of tusks is celebrated in a special ceremony called a Tuskday.
On Ruby’s Tuskday, she will give a speech to all of the elephants.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Protesting”
The grown-ups retrieve Ruby from the mud because she needs to practice for her Tuskday ceremony, which is in two days’ time. Resentful of this, Ruby tries to hide behind a tree.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Hide-and-Seek”
T.J., a park veterinarian, easily found Ruby when she was hiding behind a tree the previous day; T.J. wanted to check her tusks.
An accompanying illustration shows a woman, T.J., leaning around a tree to see a small elephant, Ruby. Ruby’s expression is morose.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Why”
Ruby explains to Aunt Laheli that she doesn’t want to rehearse for her Tuskday and that she doesn’t like her tusks. Ruby clarifies that her tusks don’t hurt anymore; she has trouble explaining her ambivalence about her tusks.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Good Advice”
Tusks start growing when elephants are about two years old, and it is painful. When Ruby’s tusks first started growing, all five of her aunts had different advice about managing the pain, including “put your head in ice cold water” and “eat a sour apple with at least two worms in it” (12). Aunt Laheli’s advice was simply not to think about it, which felt impossible.
An accompanying illustration depicts an apple with two worms in it.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Lucky”
Chapter 11 Summary: “Another Complication”
Ruby had a mom when she was younger, but she doesn’t anymore.
Chapter 12 Summary: “The Best”
Ruby is grateful to her two uncles, as well as to Aunt Stella, an older elephant whom she used to live with in a cage in a shopping mall. Uncle Ivan lived there too; Uncle Bob would come and go. It was not a good place to live.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Lost”
Aunt Stella died while they lived in the mall.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Park”
Ruby and Ivan now live at WildWorld Zoological Park and Sanctuary. Ruby’s section of the park is called Elephant Odyssey; it is right next to Ivan’s part, which is called Gorilla World.
Uncle Bob lives a few blocks away with his human family, a girl named Julia and her parents, as well with his sister, Boss, and his nephew, Rowdy.
Ruby was born in Africa.
An accompanying illustration shows a human girl, Julia, surrounded by small dogs; one dog, presumably Rowdy, is in her backpack. In the background, a small elephant, Ruby, trumpets inside a large enclosure.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Aunt Akello”
Aunt Akello joins Ruby behind the tree. She urges her to prepare for her Tuskday ceremony, reminding her that it is an important day. At Aunt Akello’s bidding, Ruby grudgingly explains why it is an important day: Tusks mean that she is growing up and will have new responsibilities. Aunt Akello reminds her of the Creed of the Herd: An elephant alone is not an elephant. Ruby knows this creed, but doesn’t understand its importance.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Floppy-Running”
Ruby floppy-runs up the hill. Ruby loves floppy-running, which is joyful and silly.
An accompanying illustration shows a young elephant, Ruby, running happily through tall grass.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Canine Corner”
Ruby approaches Canine Corner, the spot where the elephant and gorilla enclosures meet. Julia puts Bob up on the wall and he greets Ruby, asking if she has a riddle for him. Ruby reflects that Bob wants to come across as tough, but that he is “a softie at heart” (27).
Julia greets Ruby; Ruby trumpets back and Julia laughs. Ivan relaxes nearby along with Aunt Kinyani, his gorilla companion.
An accompanying illustration shows a gorilla and a dog, Ivan and Bob, looking happily at each other.
Ruby greets Aunt Kinyani, who reminds Ruby that they are separate species. Julia leaves Bob at the enclosure.
An accompanying illustration shows two gorillas, Ivan and Kinyani, sitting together on a rock in lush foliage.
Chapter 18 Summary: “A Riddle”
Ruby poses her riddle: What is as big as an elephant but weighs nothing? The group is confounded. She reveals that it is her shadow. Ivan praises her as the smartest elephant.
Ruby explains that in Africa, she would often use her parents as “elebrellas”—elephant umbrellas—to hide from the heat. She says that she liked lying under Stella as well, even though there was no sunshine in the mall. She thinks about how much she misses Stella.
An accompanying illustration shows three elephants, Ruby and her parents, in a huddle in a large, savanna-like space.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Quiet”
Chapter 20 Summary: “Night”
The elephants are called into their nighttime enclosure. Aunt Laheli checks in with Ruby about Tuskday; she wants to make sure that Ruby feels all right. Ruby doesn’t understand what the celebration offers that birthdays don’t; Aunt Laheli clarifies that Tuskday is about elephants more generally, and about the earth. Ruby asks what she will need to know; Aunt Laheli assures her that it’s already in her heart.
Ruby sees the moon and thinks of Aunt Stella.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Mwezi”
Ruby remembers that the moon would shine through the skylight in the mall. Stella would greet it by saying “Good evening, Mwezi” (40).
When there was no moon, they couldn’t sleep, so they would stay up talking.
Ruby asked Stella lots of questions. The only one she couldn’t answer was why they were in the mall, rather than in Africa.
An accompanying illustration shows the moon behind clouds.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Aunt Stella’s Questions”
Aunt Stella would always ask Ruby what had amazed her that day, which was sometimes difficult to answer. Then Aunt Stella would ask what had made her proud that day. They would say “I love you” and go to sleep (46).
Chapter 23 Summary: “An Elephant Alone”
Ruby wanders through the dark pavilion, unable to sleep. She remembers Stella telling her about her recollections of Africa when they lived at the mall. Stella used to love to walk with her herd; their footsteps were like the herd’s heartbeat. Ruby comforted Stella, reminding her that she was her herd now. Stella agreed, but suggested that it would be nice to walk in a herd again one day. Ruby assured Stella that they would have a herd again someday.
In the present, Ruby sleeps and dreams of bones on the savanna gleaming in the moonlight. When touched, they turn to dust.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Grumpy”
Ruby feels tired and grumpy the next morning; this is unlike her, she usually loves mornings. She leans on a rock with Aunt Zania, the second-oldest elephant, who is always grumpy in the mornings. Aunt Elodie and Aunt Maski trot past, reminding Ruby excitedly that it’s her Tuskday the next day.
There is construction in the corner of the enclosure. Ruby suggests that maybe humans are enlarging the space, but Aunt Zania says that the humans are probably just making something for themselves. Aunt Zania observes that it’s Ruby’s Tuskday the next day, although with less excitement than the other elephants. Aunt Zania points out that Ruby can’t escape growing up.
Ruby goes to the corner of the enclosure.
Chapter 25 Summary: “The Hole”
Ruby reflects that if she pushed on the roped-off hole in the corner of the enclosure, she could maybe get out, and then she wouldn’t have to go to her Tuskday. As she is considering this, Aunt Akello calls for her.
Chapter 26 Summary: “One of My Names”
Aunt Akello says that someone is looking for her in the visitors’ area. This is not unusual; visitors often want to see Ruby.
Ruby approaches the visitors’ area. She hears a man’s voice calling her name, but not Ruby, one of her other names, her African name.
An accompanying illustration shows a young elephant, Ruby, running through flowers.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Jabori”
Her visitor is Jabori, who calls her Duni. Jabori is Ruby’s friend from Africa; he saved Ruby’s life when she was a young elephant. They gaze at each other happily.
Jabori walks away with one of the park workers, Mandy.
Chapter 28 Summary: “A Surprise”
Chapter 29 Summary: “A For-Real Thing”
Ruby runs to Canine Corner, where Julia is dropping Bob off. Ruby tells them about Jabori, who looked after her at the elephant orphanage in Africa. Ivan points out that Ruby has never told him about the elephant orphanage. Jabori is visiting family in the US, and he tracked Ruby down online. Ruby starts talking about how much she missed Jabori. To her surprise, she starts crying.
An accompanying illustration shows a little elephant, Ruby, looking sad and downcast.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Help”
Chapters 1-30 Analysis
Ruby’s Coming of Age is alluded to in her relative immaturity at the beginning of the story. Reluctant about her Tuskday preparations, Ruby hides behind a tree. Grumpily, she reflects, “I don’t know why I couldn’t just have had five more minutes of mudfun” (7). Ruby’s immaturity in the face of huge and confusing feelings makes it difficult for her to articulate her ambivalence about her Tuskday; instead, she acts out by hiding, pouting, and being grumpy—as she explains to Aunt Zania: “I’m trying out something new. I call it ‘the grumpies’” (51).
After being reunited with Jabori, Ruby reflects on her past and begins to unpack her feelings of grief and loss with Ivan and Bob. She tells them about her parents, her life in the mall, and the loss of Stella. These traumas have clearly been weighing on Ruby, as is evident in her reflections about the death of Aunt Stella: “Aunt Stella’s memory is like a different kind of shadow, following me day and night” (33). Katherine Applegate stresses The Importance of Friendship and Family in navigating the confusion of growing up, especially when grief and loss are involved; this is a recurring theme throughout the novel. Through exploring her painful feelings in a supportive environment, Ruby is able to process them in a more mature way. Ruby’s decision to unburden herself to her uncles at the end of these chapters shows that she is maturing and suggests that her approaching Tuskday ceremony will be successful.
Animal Cruelty and Exploitation is also introduced as an important and recurring theme in these chapters. Ruby alludes to the ivory trade when she reflects, “It’s our tusks everyone is interested in. Especially humans” (5). Furthermore, Ruby’s revelation that she lived in an elephant orphanage in Africa foreshadows the revelation in later chapters that Ruby’s mother was killed for her tusks, which puts Ruby’s mixed feelings about her approaching Tuskday in context.
The cruel treatment of animals by humans is further explored in the animals’ backstories. Aunt Laheli is blind in one eye from when “a man at the roadside zoo where she used to live poked it with a stick” (10). This instance of casual cruelty highlights the pain and suffering humans inflict on zoo animals. Furthermore, Ruby’s recollections about the mall where she, Stella, and Ivan used to live demonstrate the abject conditions humans subject animals to for their own entertainment. The “small cage” they are forced to share smells like “moldy hay and animals who’d forgotten how to hope” (40). Applegate combines the literal scent of moldy hay with the metaphorical scent of hopelessness to stress the emotional effect the tiny and unpleasant cage has on the animals who live there: It causes them to lose all hope and joy. Stella can answer all of Ruby’s questions about the world, except for one: “I wanted to know why Aunt Stella and I had ended up at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Why were we there, and not Africa?” (42). Stella’s inability to answer this question gestures to the randomness and misfortune of ending up at the mall.
Even the sanctuary is an inherently imperfect place for the animals to live, because it isn’t their natural habitat. Ruby observes that “it’s a safe place, and they take good care of us here. But it’s not a perfect place. It’s not the wild” (30). Through the animals’ longing for the wild, Applegate criticizes the human practice of taking animals from their natural habitats and caging them in zoos. The sanctuary is somewhat exempt from her critique, in that it rescues animals who had already been taken and provides a home as close as possible to their natural habitat.
However, some of the animals who live at the sanctuary, like Aunt Zania, still have trouble trusting humans after everything they’ve been through. When Ruby interprets the construction zone in the enclosure as a sign that humans are working to make elephants’ lives better, Aunt Zania is more cynical, saying the construction is probably self-serving. It’s suggested that Aunt Zania, who is much older than Ruby, has suffered too much human-inflicted trauma in her life to believe that humans could ever be capable of selflessness, even at a sanctuary that is supposed to be about helping animals.
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