Other editions of book The Crying Rocks

From Newbery Honor author Janet Taylor Lisle comes a lyrical story about one girl’s discovery of her startling past—and her search to understand her complicated present.Joelle’s height and dark skin set her apart from everyone in Marshfield. It’s no secret that she’s adopted, but where is she from? Aunt Mary Louise says she came from Chicago on a freight train, but the story doesn’t sit right with Joelle. There’s something more. She feels it. Carlos, the quiet boy in Joelle’s Spanish class, sees it. When he tells her that she looks like a girl in the town library’s old mural of Narragansett Indians, Joelle can’t help sneaking a look. She’s surprised by a flicker of recognition. And when Carlos tells her about the Crying Rocks, where the ghosts of Narragansett children are said to cry for their lost mothers, Joelle knows she must visit them. When they finally set out through the forest, neither she nor Carlos anticipates the power of the ancient place, or the revelations to be found there—about the pasts they’ve both buried, and the discovery of a rare kind of courage that runs deep in Joelle’s family.

Thirteen-year-old Joelle looks like a Native American, a lost princess, according to her unwelcome fan club of eight-year-old worshippers. And it's true that her past is a mystery. Joelle remembers nothing of her life before she was found, a scrawny five-year-old child, alone at a railway depot. But when Carlos, the slightly weird kid from her Spanish class, tells her that she looks like a girl in an old painting of Narragansett Indians, Joelle can't help sneaking a look, and is surprised by the flicker of recognition. It's Carlos who leads her through the forest to the ancient Crying Rocks, where howls on windy days are thought to be the spirit voices of children long ago, flung from the boulders to an early death. This terrible story sparks off memories for Joelle, slowly remembering a window, a shadowy mother, and a train journey to escape...It also leads her to discover the history of a lost American people - and to find a rare kind of courage that runs deep in her family...

A New York Times Bestselling Author A Newbery Honor and Scott O'Dell Award-winning Author About Joelle's life before she was found as a scrawny five-year-old, there isn't a lot known. But when her weird classmate, Carlos, tells her she looks like a girl in an old painting of Narragansett Indians, Joelle is surprised by a flicker of recognition. Carlos leads her to the ancient Crying Rocks, where the howling winds are thought to be the spirit voices of children long ago flung to an early death. The terrible story draws Joelle into the downdraft of her own memory.