TROUBLE THE WATER by Frances O'Roark Dowell

TROUBLE THE WATER is set in Celeste, Kentucky, in 1953. The whites and the blacks get along as long as they know their place. Whites tolerate blacks using the front doors of town establishments, but the black children go to their own school and the town swimming pool is for whites only.

Eleven year old Callie doesn't think too much about the different treatment of blacks until the day she finds the old, yellow dog. That dog and an abandoned cabin in the woods bring her together with a white boy named Wendell. In an effort to find the owner of the dog and the rightful owner of the old cabin, the two become friends.

Callie writes stories for the black newspaper and is excited to do the detective work necessary to write a story about the dog and the cabin. Her curiosity and stubbornness lead her to better understand the separation that exists in her southern town. She vows to make a change, but will she be able to convince Wendell to see things her way?

Author Frances O'Roark Dowell has numerous books for middle grade readers, among them are DOVEY COE, THE SECOND LIFE OF ABIGAIL WALKER, and my favorite CHICKEN BOY.