What happened in the woods that day? Pete Hautman's riveting
middle-grade novel touches on secrets and mysteries -- and the power of
connections with family and friends.
"Hatred combined with lies and secrets can break the world." Grandpa
Zach used to say that before he died, but Stuey never really knew what
he meant. It was kind of like how he used to talk about quantum physics
or how he used to say ghosts haunted their overgrown golf course. But
then one day, after Stuey and his best friend, Elly Rose, spend
countless afternoons in the deadfall in the middle of the woods,
something totally unbelievable happens. As Stuey and Elly Rose struggle
to come to grips with their lives after that reality-splitting moment,
all the things Grandpa Zach used to say start to make a lot more sense.
This is a book about memory and loss and the destructive nature of
secrets, but also about the way friendship, truth, and perseverance have
the ability to knit a torn-apart world back together.