Orion O’Brien and the Spirit of Quindaro

There’s something weird about that mirror in Granny’s attic!

 

Orion and her brother Ollie see the reflection of a girl who isn’t really there. Not only that, she looks like somebody from another time.  With neighbors Sal and Sofi Martelli, they learn the story of Susanna Chase, a slave girl who ran away on the Underground Railroad in 1860 and waited in Quindaro for her father to join her. She died of the measles before he got there, but she can’t “die satisfied” until she finds out if he escaped from slavery. The kids seek help from Granny, who reveals a long-buried secret. A diary, a doll and a harmonica lead them to answers for Susanna, but they’re almost out of time—they have to tell her before she goes back to her grave forever! The bonus? An amazing connection that nobody expected.

 

Susanna Chase

“I was a slave on a tobacco farm in Missouri along with my whole family. When my master sold my two little brothers away to Arkansas, Mama decided we was gonna run away before he could sell me, too. We snuck off one night and followed the north star. We made it to Quindaro on the Underground Railroad and a nice lady hid us in her house so we could wait for my Daddy—but we died of the measles before he got there. I been waitin’ in the house all these years ’cause I couldn’t die satisfied, not knowin’ what happened to my Daddy.”