The Lead

Clara Marsh has been working at her mom's newspaper since she was eight. She knows the archive better than anyone. She knows where everything is and what everything means. So when her mom assigns her to help a freelance writer cover Harwick's 150th anniversary, Clara starts where she always starts: the archive. That was when she found the gap. Three years of issues, missing. A different paper, under a different name, from 1872 -- before Harwick was officially a town. A cornerstone on the side of the oldest building in town that says 1872, worn down and half-hidden, while the new bronze plaque out front says 1875. And every adult Clara asks tells her the same thing: stick to what the town asked us to cover. Her mom doesn't explain it. She says leave 1872 alone. So Clara starts digging. The Lead is the story of what happens when a twelve-year-old junior archivist follows a story the grown-ups have decided isn't one -- and finds the person everyone forgot to mention. It is also the story of her best friend Lily, texting in from camp, who has strong opinions about what it means when someone tells you to stop looking. Short chapters. Document inserts. Dry humor. For readers who like finding the thing that doesn't fit, and following it.