Vanishing Village

Eleven-year-old Noor visits grandparents in Hollowbrook, a tiny mountain village, for the summer. But people have been disappearing one by one, and no one will talk about it. Can Noor solve the mystery of the old covered bridge before someone else vanishes?

Noor pressed her face against the car window as the road wound higher into the mountains. The trees got thicker and the air got cooler, and soon a wooden sign appeared: Welcome to Hollowbrook, Population 203.

'Almost there,' Mom said from the driver's seat.

Noor smiled because she hadn't seen her grandparents since last summer. 'Do you think Grandma made baklava?' she asked.

'When has Grandma ever NOT made baklava?'

Grandma and Grandpa were already waving from the porch of their stone cottage when the car pulled up. The village was just as Noor remembered it -- cobblestone streets, a little bakery, and mountains rising up on every side like green walls. 'Home,' Noor thought, even though it wasn't technically home. It felt like it.