Soon Be Free

"Why do weird things always happen to me?"
Dana thought she had solved all the historical mysteries in her parents' house in Lawrence, Kansas. But now that her parents have turned the house into a bed-and-breakfast, Dana isn't so sure. Their first guests, the Burks, are a suspicious couple who snoop where they shouldn't, searching for a secret document linked to the Weavers, a Quaker family who lived in the house almost 150 years ago when the house was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
As Dana combs the house for the hidden document, the story unfolds of thirteen-year-old James Baylor Weaver and his journey in 1857 to bring four slaves to freedom. James's travels will not only change his life but will bring about a horrible choice -- one that holds the key to the mystery Dana must solve before the Burks. Will she find the document in time?

Lois Ruby is the author of several novels, including Steal Away Home, which was named an IRA Young Adults’ Choice and a Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies (NCSS/CBC). Before she turned to writing, she was a young adult librarian for the Dallas Public Library. In her spare time, she serves on the board of Inter-Faith Inn Homeless Shelter in Wichita, Kansas, and sometimes teaches minicourses to seventh and eighth graders. “The place I feel most comfortable,” she says, “is among teenagers, laughing.” The mother of three sons, she lives in Wichita with her husband, Thomas.