The protagonist of SAMSON AND THE CHARLESTON SPY may be the definitive underrepresented voice in middle-grade fiction today: he's a boy and a Southerner, confronting the Civil War from the Confederate perspective. When Samson Collier and three sixth-grade friends witness the bombardment of Ft. Sumter offshore from their homes, they decide that the Yankee soldiers at the fort must have been forewarned about the attack-since no one was killed although the structure appeared to be wrecked. They set off to find the spy who told secrets. During their escapades, they confront slavery (one of the four is the son of a freedman), nativism (another of them is the daughter of a prominent Catholic family), zealotry (a man forming a brigade to fight the North appropriates Sam's beloved horse) and evil (they are attacked by a highwayman in The Devil's Hole). Eventually, the children discover a shocking plan to undermine their homeland. The book is an historically accurate and action-packed adventure/mystery.