Button Bright

"Somebody was yelling in the room now, one of the strange men, and her mother was screaming and screaming. But Button was only dimly aware of the sounds. Her consciousness had shrunk down to focus on the body that was blocking her hole- -and the warm, thick liquid that was dripping onto her hand." Button is an 11 year old, bubbly and intelligent girl who is haunted in her dreams by a tapping sound... Living with her mother and father in Cottsborough, Vermont, Button had been trained to hide and not ever answer to her secret name, 'Rachel'. One day, two men arrive at Button's family home searching for her by this secret name. Refusing to give Button up, things turn violent and the men shoot her father dead. Through a narrow crack in the floor boards, Button bears witness to the murder. Eluding the two men who tried to catch her, Button uses her wits to navigate herself from Vermont to Boston and then to New York. Button has a plan to find her uncle Dromkin. When her search seems hopeless, Button is taken in by a resident of her uncle's apartment building, Phil, who claims he can help. But when they find Dromkin sprawled on the floor with his throat cut, Button is convinced she is somehow the cause of these family murders... Will Phil be able to keep her identity hidden long enough for her to find out the truth? Praise for Michael Kurland: "A perfect tale of childhood terror." - Tom Kasey