The Stones of Mourning Creek

At first, 14-year-old Francie Grove trusts the sheriff's report: her mother's death was accidental. Her father, more lost in drink than ever, is keeping his suspicions to himself. Francie gets through her grief alone by taking walks down at the local creek. A nearly fatal encounter with a cottonmouth snake takes Francie into the healing home of Ruthie Taylor, a black girl she has never met because the town of Spring Gap is almost totally segregated by race. Ruthie quickly becomes Francie's best friend and the Taylor family becomes her refuge. At the same time that Francie and Ruthie's friendship develops, a mystery begins to unfold around the death of Francie's mother. Clues suggest that she may have been murdered, and Ruthie unknowingly holds key information. In this lyrically written, dramatically charged novel, a determined heroine crosses racial divides to expose her town's deadliest secrets.


Genre: Young Adult Fiction