What We Saw

by Mary Downing Hahn (Author)

What We Saw
Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade

A chilling murder mystery lies at the heart of this page-turning thriller about a missing teacher, small town secrets, and turbulent tween friendships from master of middle grade horror Mary Downing Hahn.

When best friends Abbi and Skylar witness a clandestine meeting between a mysterious woman and someone in a dark van, they're thrilled. Finally, a mystery to spice up the summer! Who could these people be? Why are they meeting? Are they spies? Criminals? The two girls are determined to find out. But then a local woman goes missing and is found dead in the woods. And Abbi and Skylar realize that their detective work could hold the keys to solving her murder. Suddenly, sleuthing isn't so fun anymore.

As tensions rise and their friendship frays, the girls find themselves in increasing danger, and must choose between keeping a secret or exposing a life-altering truth.

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Publishers Weekly

A small-town murder heralds the death of childhood innocence in this character-driven thriller by Hahn (The Thirteenth Cat). Longing to shake things up during summer break ("Don't you want to see exactly where Evansburg stops and Plattsville starts? Haven't you ever wondered about endings and beginnings?"), 12-year-old Abbi's reckless best friend, Skylar, persuades her to start sneaking out to an abandoned tree house near their town's limits, where they dodge a pair of weed-dealing bullies and observe weekly assignations between two disguised adults. Abbi imagines the grown-ups as spies, and Skylar as an adulterous couple, but the discovery of the woman's corpse in the nearby woods--and her identity as someone they both know--soon shatters their fantasies. Grappling with grief, experiencing tension with Skylar, and unable to confide in her mother, Abbi's reluctant connection to the murder investigation propels her toward sinister danger. Creating suspense through Abbi's anxiety and ominous setting details, including claustrophobia-inducing woods, Hahn holds the thriller plot in the background until the book's second half, focusing throughout on nuanced character relationships, strained and reborn through the tensions of growing up. Main characters cue as white. Ages 8-12. (Sept.)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780358697312
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Clarion Books
Publication date
September 12, 2023
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV037000 - Juvenile Fiction | Fantasy & Magic
JUV028000 - Juvenile Fiction | Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories
JUV018000 - Juvenile Fiction | Horror
JUV067000 - Juvenile Fiction | Thrillers & Suspense
Library of Congress categories
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