What We Saw
by Mary Downing Hahn
Middle School     Clarion/HarperCollins    208 pp.         g
9/22     978-0-358-41441-4     $16.99
e-book ed.  978-0-358-73106-1    $9.99

“Pool. Mall. Library.” The summer after seventh grade was getting boring until Skylar persuades Abbi to do something different. The best friends ride bikes to the outskirts of town, where they find an old treehouse and claim it as their own private spot to observe the world. Soon they find a mystery happening right below them: every Thursday, two cars park under the tree. A woman wearing huge sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat exits her car and gets into a man’s (they can hear his voice) SUV, which then drives off. One Thursday, however, the woman storms off into the woods after an argument in the SUV. The girls are intrigued but don’t connect what they’ve witnessed to the report that their beloved art teacher is missing. The first half of the novel is deliberately paced, with hints and clues tantalizingly placed; by the time Abbi and Skylar realize what they’ve seen, readers will be a step ahead of them, witnessing their mistakes and bad decisions. Beyond the mystery is a compelling story of family, friends, bullies, and peer-group conformity. Hahn, who has made a long career of writing thrillers, once again demonstrates how engrossing a good story can be.

From the September/October 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.