Winner San Diego Book Awards. Athens Missouri, 1957. There could be no safer time nor place to be a child, or so they thought. Eight-year-old Ruth Anne Carver sees something she shouldn't have, something she doesn't understand. Keeping it secret could lead to murder, but telling the truth might be even worse. In the tradition of "To Kill a Mockingbird," this is a story that hits on the themes of tolerance, compassion and universal justice.