15 year-old Macey has been living in the same wealthy neighbourhood all her life - just down the road from her grandparents. Life is easy. But she doesn't know how lucky she is . . .Macey's eyes are about to be opened to the reality of race and conflict in modern America - when a secret from the past explodes into her life. Forty years ago there was a fire across the road from her own grandparents. A fire which never quite died down. A fire which drove a man out of town because of the colour of his skin. Were Macey's grandparents - warm, round and totally adorable - involved? The stench of smoke is everywhere - cloaking a conspiracy of silence with a gut-wrenching secret at its heart . . .

 

There are 240 pages in this book. This book was published 2000 by Pan Macmillan .

Caroline B. Cooney is the author of many hugely successful novels for young people, including THE FACE ON THE MILK CARTON, WHAT CHILD IS THIS? and BURNING UP. She lives in Westbrook, Connecticut.