Divided Decade Trilogy, book one. After a tantrum, Emily Preston is shipped from her plantation home to her inn-keeping uncle in Detroit. There Emily meets Malachi, son of freed slaves, who challenges many ideas she grew up believing. But when she stumbles upon two runaways hidden in her uncle’s barn, Emily must decide: should she turn them in to the slave catchers or help Malachi escort them to freedom? Ages 10+

When Emily was a little girl, her father had taken her outside in each season and pointed out the pictures in the stars, explaining the ancient lore behind them. She wondered if he was looking up at the same stars right now.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?"

Emily started. She hadn't heard Malachi approach.

"Looks like you can just reach up and pluck one down, maybe set it in a ring," he said. "It'd be the most beautiful piece of jewelry you ever laid eyes on."

He pointed to the Big Dipper. "See the last two stars in the bowl of the spoon? They line up just right and point the way to the North Star."

Emily had learned that when she was six.

"When I was little, I remember Mama setting a candle in the window on the nights Daddy would get in late. I slept sound on those nights, confident that beacon was guiding my daddy home."

He paused as he contemplated the night sky. "The North Star is kind of like a candle God hung up special to guide His lost children home. Lot of black folks looking up at it right now, directing themselves home to freedom."