"Footer Davis is on the case when two kids go missing after a fire in this humorously honest novel that is full of Southern style.Bless your heart is a saying in the South that sounds nice but really isnt. It means, Youre beyond help. Thats what folks say about fifth grader Footer Daviss mom, who aint right because of her bipolar disorder. She just shot a snake in Footers yard with an elephant gun, and now shes been shipped off to a mental hospital, and Footer is missing her fiercely yet again. Bless their hearts is also what folks say about Cissy and Doc Abrams, two kids who went missing after a house fire. Footer wants to be a journalist and her friend Peavine wants to be a detective, so the two decide to help with the mystery of the missing kids. But when visiting the crime scene makes Footer begin to have episodes of her own, she wonders if maybe shes getting sick like her mom, and thats a mystery that shes not at all sure she wants to solve."

 

This book was recognised by the Edgar Allen Poe Award. The Edgars are presented annually by the members of the Mystery Writers of America to distinguished fiction and non-fiction works about crime, mystery and detection primarily by American authors. It was recognised in the Fiction - Middle Grade category by the Cybils Award. The Cybils Awards is a group of readers passionate about seeking out and recognizing books that represent diversity, inclusion, and appropriate representation for children and teens. To accomplish that goal, the Cybils Awards works to recognize books written for children and young adults that combine both the highest literary merit and popular appeal.

This book has been graded for interest at 10-14 years.

There are 240 pages in this book. This book was published 2015 by Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books .

Jennifer Black Reinhardt grew up in the mountains of Pennsylvania and attended Carnegie Mellon University where she received a degree in illustration. She has illustrated several books for children, including Yaks Yak: Animal Word Pairs by Linda Sue Park, The Inventor's Secret: What Thomas Edison Told Henry Ford by Suzanne Slade, and Rabbi Benjamin's Buttons by Alice B. McGinty. Trading the mountains for the prairie, Jennifer now lives in Iowa City, Iowa. She happily works in a comfortably messy studio in her home, where she lives with her family. Susan Vaught is the author of the highly acclaimed novels Trigger, My Big Fat Manifesto, Going Underground, as well as Oathbreaker, which she co-authored with her son, JB Redmond. She is also a practicing psychologist and lives with her family and many rescued animals in Kentucky, USA.