Samson and the Charleston Spy

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(166 166 166 1)>The protagonist of SAMSON AND THE CHARLESTON SPY may be the definitive underrepresented voice in middle-grade fiction today: he's a boy and a Southerner confronting the Civil War from the Confederate perspective.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(166 166 166 1)>When Samson Collier and three sixth-grade friends witness the bombardment of Ft. Sumter offshore from their homes they decide that the Yankee soldiers at the fort must have been forewarned about the attack-since no one was killed although the structure appeared to be wrecked. They set off to find the spy who told secrets. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(166 166 166 1)>During their escapades they confront slavery (one of the four is the son of a freedman) nativism (another of them is the daughter of a prominent Catholic family) zealotry (a man forming a brigade to fight the North appropriates Sam's beloved horse) and evil (they are attacked by a highwayman in The Devil's Hole). Eventually the children discover a shocking plan to undermine their homeland.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(166 166 166 1)>The book is an historically accurate and action-packed adventure/mystery.</span></p><p></p><p></p>