FOREVER GLIMMER CREEK

Every year one person in Glimmer Creek survives great danger, after which they seem to acquire subtle magical abilities.

Spurred in large part by a longing to impress the actor father she’s never met, right now filming only two hours away, 12-year-old budding film director Rosie Flynn is determined to make a documentary about her town’s Miracles and premiere it at its Festival of the Fish. Solving the 100-year-old mystery of what causes them would prove she has real talent as a filmmaker. But Rosie, who has secretly invited her father to the showing, has only 17 days to make the movie! She enlists her two best friends, Henry and Cam (all together they are HenRoCam), to help. These three have always been there for one another, but everything seems to be different once they start seventh grade. Hackney authentically covers a lot of middle school ground in this well-crafted debut. Rosie grapples with changing friendships, worries that she and her mother no longer seem “snapped together like the two halves of Mama’s locket,” and even questions if the Miracles are real. By turns gripping and suspenseful, especially when Henry goes missing, and also emotionally insightful, the story weaves together small-town lore (a 100-year-old skeleton, lost treasure) with a strong sense of community in which love, kindness, and faith quietly emerge. Most characters seem white; Cam has light-brown skin.

Readers will be caught up as the lens through which this likable protagonist sees her world expands.