Dessen, Sarah.
LOCK AND KEY
New York : Viking, 2008
IL YA
ISBN 067001088X

(2 booktalks)

Ruby has been abandoned by her  mother. Then, she was off to live with her older sister Cora, who Ruby hasn't seen in 10 years, and her husband Jamie, who is founder of a big networking website. A nice home, a caring family, and a cute boy, who happens to be  her next door  neighbor, what more could a girl want? The only thing Ruby really wants though  is to be back at home in her yellow house, living on her own before the social workers took her away. The yellow house was her real home. Well, what she can call home at least.  Everything in her new town is just so…perfect. Once she becomes friends with Nate, the next door neighbor, she learns that he isn't so perfect after all. He has a secret of his own. Why does Ruby keep running away from her great life? And what does Nate keep trying to hide? To find out what Nate's big secret is and why Ruby keeps running away from her new life, read Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen.  (Tanya V., student)

Booktalk #2

Ruby’s life has suddenly gotten much easier. So, why is she having such a hard time dealing with it? After it was discovered that her mother had run off and left Ruby to get by on her own, Ruby has finally been reunited with her sister Cora who she has not seen in years. Ruby had hoped that no one would ever find out—at least not until she had already turned eighteen. But, that was not to be. Now she has to move to a nice house, attend a private school, and plan for college. Even Nate, the nice, good-looking boy next door is not enough to lighten Ruby’s spirits. As she finds friends in her new world and learns that a nicer environment does not mean that life is easier, Ruby comes to find that secrets need to be told and that she has to trust others if she is going to find true happiness.
Reviewed by Kari Hagman for Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award