Ten-year-old Ruby Goldberg is determined to win her school science fair and beat her nemesis Dominic Robinson. She's snagged second place for the last two years, and she's set on claiming first prize. The only trouble is that Ruby has no ideas. When her grandfather's beloved basset hound dies, Ruby thinks of the perfect thing that will cheer him up and win her first place--an innovative, state-of-the-art, not-to-be-duplicated Ruby Goldberg invention!

Before long Ruby is so busy working on her idea that she ignores everything else in her life, including her best friend, Penny. And what started out as simple turns into something much more complicated! Can Ruby get her priorities--and the mechanisms of her project--in order before it's too late?

This book has been graded for interest at 8-12 years.

There are 144 pages in this book. This book was published 2014 by Simon & Schuster .

Anna Humphrey is the author of Rhymes with Stupid and Mission (un)Popular , both novels for teens. Ruby Goldberg's Bright Idea is her first novel for middle graders. She lives with her husband and kids in Toronto, Ontario. Vanessa Brantley-Newton is the writer and/or illustrator of many picture books, including One Love , based on the Bob Marley song. Ms. Newton lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.