The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Applegate, Katherine. The One and Only Ruby. HarperCollins. 2023. Kindle

The One and Only Ruby is the third book in Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan trilogy. The One and Only Ruby is a novel-in-verse that is narrated in first-person-present by the main character, Ruby, who is an elephant originally from Africa. However, she was taken from her home and kept in captivity at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade inside a small cage with Ivan the gorilla, Bob the stray dog, and Stella the older elephant. Ruby passed away before Bob was adopted by Julia, the janitor’s daughter, and Ruby and Ivan were transferred to the Wildworld Zoological Park and Sanctuary. This backstory is described in detail in the first novel of the series, The One and Only Ivan.

Ruby complains to the reader that no one ever listens to her because she is the littles elephant. All her aunts call her Tusky, even though she asks them not to, because she is getting her tusks. However, she secretly hates her tusks, but she does not want to tell any of her aunts. Whenever elephants begin to grow their tusks, a special Tuskday ceremony celebrates the occasion. Ruby does not want to have a Tuskday, but her aunts make her stop playing in the pond mud to go practice. Instead of practicing, Ruby runs away and tries to hide behind a tree. However, Aunt Akello comes over and speaks to Ruby about the importance of Tuskday. Then, Aunt Akello tells Ruby to run off and visit with her Uncle Ivan and Uncle Bob. Ruby tells them a riddle that makes her think of Stella, and they all get sad and quiet.

That night, Ruby looks up at the moon and remembers how she and Stella used to be able to sometimes see the moon from their cage in the mall. In the morning, Ruby notices a hole in the fence where the humans are doing construction. Aunt Akello tells her she has a visitor, so Ruby goes to inspect, and she sees her old friend, Jabori, from Africa.

After Jabori leaves, Ruby runs up the hill to tell Ivan and Bob who she just saw. However, she starts to cry. Ivan and Bob ask her to tell them more about her life in Africa. She has never told them about it before, but they think it might help her.

Ruby starts her story by explaining that she can remember the day she was born into her first herd, which had 16 elephants. She started walking right away, and she loved being with her big family—especially her mother. Her best friend was a cattle egret, who perched on her back and ate insects. One day, Ruby smelled smoke, and Grandmama told her that the world was heating up, so there would be more and more fires in the future. A drought began, and Ruby’s mother stopped being able to produce milk. Ruby and her mother fell behind the other elephants. Ruby got stuck inside a mud hole, but some “good humans” found her and helped her get out. Then they even walked Ruby and her mother back to their herd.

The herd continued their journey and came across a pile of elephant bones. Ruby learned how to pay her respect to the bones. Two days later, Ruby and her mother fell behind again. This time, however, Ruby’s mother was shot by poachers. Two random young bull elephants helped Ruby escape, but the poachers stole her mother’s tusks. The next day, a helicopter came, and Ruby was tranquilized before being transported to an elephant orphanage.

At the orphanage, Ruby met Jabori and came to love him. She also got to know the other baby elephants. One day, though, Jabori had to leave her to take the other elephants on a walk because she had a thorn in her foot. A group of poachers started a fire to lure her out of her cage, and she was kidnapped and transported to the USA, where she was forced into the Fizzle Brother Family Circus, a terribly depressing roadside zoo with only one other elephant, Fiona, who had completely given up on life. The circus quickly went out of business, and then Ruby was sold to the mall where she met Stella, Ivan, and Bob. At the mall, Stella had taken care of Ruby. Before Stella died, she begged Ivan to help Ruby find a better life.

When Ruby finishes her story, both Ivan and Bob start to cry. They tell her it is good to talk about sad things. That night, Ruby cannot sleep because her Tuskday is in the morning. She wakes up early and tries to sneak out the hold to run away, but she gets stuck and starts to cry.

Aunt Akello finds Ruby and tells her a riddle to lighten the mood. Then she uses her tusks to help Ruby get out of the fence unharmed. Aunt Akello tells Ruby that she, too, grew up in Africa. Ruby confesses that she hates her tusks, and Aunt Akello says she understands. She explains that humans want elephant tusks to make objects out of, but insists that tusks are useful and worthy of celebration.

They join the rest of the herd and Ruby completes her Tuskday ceremony, which even includes a moment of respect for Stella. Ruby learns that she must ask herself two questions every night: What gifts did she give the world, and what gifts did the world give her? She ends the novel by claiming that the world has given her too many gifts to count. Even though she is the littlest elephant, she says, she is also the luckiest.