Lock and Key (novel)
After her drug and alcohol addicted mother abandons her, child services forces 17-year-old Ruby Cooper to move in with her sister, Cora, who had left for college when Ruby was young. Ruby is upset about this arrangement and continues to wear the key to her old home on a chain around her neck. After learning she will be transferring to a new high school, Ruby attempts to run away but is found out. Nate Cross, Jamie and Cora's next-door neighbor, covers for her. Over the span of the story, Ruby slowly becomes closer to Nate.
Ruby Hammond
Hammond was born in 1936 in Blackford, an independent indigenous community on the south-east coast of South Australia, and was a member of the Tanganekald group of the Ngarridindjeri people of the Coorong. Ruby obtained school certificate in 1952 but the tough conditions at work in a shop made her touch racism against her.