Four Secrets
Age 12+
General Fiction
Margaret Willey has published in many genres-picture books, fiction, and poetry. In 2002, Clever
Beatrice (Atheneum, 2001) won the Charlotte Zolotow Award for best text in a picture book. Her
most recent picture book is The 3 Bears and Goldilocks (Atheneum, 2008). She has written six
young adult novels, most recently Four Secrets (Carolrhoda Lab, 2012) which was given the
Booklist Top 10 Crime Fiction for Youth award and about which The Hom Book Magazine said,
"the four secrets are satisfyingly juicy yet given depth by Willey's understanding of the complexities
of friendship."
Creators
Katie, Renata, and Nate are three friends bound by mutual outsider status. When Renata, who is new to town and who looks "different" from the average North Holmes teen, becomes the favorite bullying target of Chase, star athlete and heir apparent to the town's most prominent family, the trio hatches a plan to take revenge. They manage to kidnap Chase. Initially, they intend to make him apologize, but Chase turns out to be more than willing to disappear for a time, and after a few days, the trio wants nothing more than for Chase to go home. Things escalate when the kidnapping is finally exposed and the three are arrested. The three make a pact never to reveal why they did what they did.
