Junior Library Guild Selection
When the grownups can't do it, three friends join together to figure
out who killed a little boy in their neighborhood in this stunning debut
YA by award-winning playwright Stephane Dunn.
Nia Barnes is preparing to enter high school and trying to stay on her
mama's good side. Life in her small Midwestern city hasn't been the same
since her father's unsolved murder, driving Nia's love of detective
novels and true crime stories.
When the little boy she babysits is caught in the crossfire of a
drive-by shooting, Nia and her best friends Dontay and Miracle Ruth
secretly set out to get him justice. They look up police reports and
listen to the conversations of their elders; they try to follow suspects
the way Nia's favorite teen detectives might.
But the search for truth isn't straightforward, especially when you're
somewhere between being kids and adults, and people want peace but are
afraid to talk.
Writer and filmmaker Stephane Dunn makes her YA debut with this
endearing, heart-wrenching novel about loss, truth, and the reality of
violence in communities everywhere.