The Silver Box

Francie wakes in her aunts' chilly cabin by Enchantment Lake to find that her world has shifted, possibly for good. Her hopes now rest on a small silver box engraved with puzzling clues that may lead to her missing mother and to the answer to a question she has long carried: who is she, really? Francie has more to learn than she expected, and the lessons could cost her dearly.

Her search takes her and her closest friends, Raven and Jay, from a deserted Arizona ranch to a shady plant collector's greenhouse and a dim old museum where something seems to watch from every glass case. Underneath it all lies a crime close to home. Thieves in the North Woods are stripping rare orchids from the forest floor, tearing bark from birch trees, scraping moss from trunks, and felling whole stands of young trees to sell as decor. The box, however, points to a theft far more dangerous than ordinary poaching.

As the trail carries Francie deep into the snowy, bitterly cold backwoods, she discovers that she is not the only one being hunted. This final Enchantment Lake mystery is a North Woods winter story for teen readers who enjoy puzzles and suspense.