Voices at Whisper Bend

Follows Charlotte Campbell, 12, whose entire family is contributing to America’s World War II campaign. Her big brother, Jim, has just enlisted in the Navy; her mother has taken a factory job; and her father is a tugboat captain who tows war supplies up and down the Monongahela River. Charlotte is also inspired to help, and organizes classmates to collect scrap metal for the mill. When the scrap metal is stolen from the school’s basement, Charlotte tracks the thief to the rain-swollen Monongahela on a dark night. The Whisper Bend of the book’s title is an actual cove, though for the novel it has been moved downstream near Braddock.