The Back of the Stone

About this book

The Millville Mysteries: The Back of the StoneBook TwoMillville, Ohio is celebrating its 175th anniversary, and the whole town has turned out to scrub and polish the old Civil War memorial in the town square. It is Nora Flint who notices something strange: on the back of the stone, where no one ever looks, seven names have been scratched into the granite by hand. Names that were never meant to be there.The official memorial has stood since 1869. Nobody put those names on it. And nobody seems to know they are there.The Millville Meddlers - Nora, Eddie, Cal, and James - have learned that the past does not stay buried just because someone wants it to. Following a trail that leads from a letter written on the eve of the Civil War to the records of a freedman who made a journey no one expected, the four friends begin to uncover a family secret that has divided the town of Millville for more than 150 years. One brother chose courage. One chose reputation. And the stone in the square has been keeping score ever since.But the deeper they dig, the more it becomes clear that history is not finished with Millville. And when Harold Calloway opens an old envelope on Heritage Day evening and reads the first line aloud, the Meddlers realize that what they found is not the end of the mystery.It is the beginning of something larger.The Back of the Stone is the second book in The Millville Mysteries, a middle-grade series about four kids in a small Ohio town where the past keeps showing up in unexpected places, and where doing right by the people history forgot turns out to matter more than anyone expected.For readers ages 8 to 12. Series best read in order.