A strange coin. A hidden diary. An unexplained death. Secrets. When a diverse group of five friends attempt to solve the fifty-year-old mystery of an unidentified boy who drowned during a hurricane, they uncover a disturbing case of racial segregation. Ian Cooper is a quiet, industrious eleven-year-old boy who lives in a small city with his outspoken younger sister, and his stressed-out single mother. Ian has a habit of making bad decisions, and when he accidentally sets fire to the forest behind his house, his mother has had enough - she ships him off to work for his grandparents in the small seaside town of Mitchell Bay for the summer. While there, Ian attends a day camp, where he makes friends with a small, diverse group of kids. They learn there is a fifty-year-old unsolved mystery of an unidentified boy who drowned in the bay, and pledge to solve it by summer's end. But they are thwarted by Ian's overprotective grandmother, the town bully, and a shady librarian with a dark past. On an outing with the day camp, Ian has a confrontation with the bully, who pushes him down a steep hill. Ian hits his head and ends up in the hospital. Ian secretly works on the mystery alone, against his grandmother's orders. After he recovers, the kids renew their investigation. Ian and one of his friends venture out to a small island in the bay. In a cave, they discover the identity of the boy. A storm surge from an offshore hurricane floods the cave, and Ian is swept away. He's found face down in the bay, but is revived. A year later, he and his friends attend a ceremony to honor the boy they helped identify, and to acknowledge their efforts in identifying him

Mode of access: World Wide Web