After Iris and her best friend, Daniel, find the grave of an 11-year-old girl named Avery Moore in an abandoned cemetery near their homes, Iris begins seeing a Black girl at her second-floor window, calling her to come out and play. As part of a research project for school, Iris and Daniel learn that cemeteries in their community were once segregated, with many African American graveyards abandoned during the Great Migration. They also learn Avery Moore, who died in 1956, was one of 9 students who integrated their middle school in the 1950s, not long before she died. Neither Avery nor any of the other nine Black students are recognized on their school’s wall of fame. For African American Iris, who has just recently dealt with another racist incident at school, it isn’t right, but it also isn’t surprising. But the ghost of Avery is determined that neither she nor Iris will be forgotten, putting Iris’s life at risk. As a ghost Avery is frightening; as a girl she has a poignant, compelling history that Iris and Daniel are piecing together, one with a connection to both of their lives in this scary tale with a satisfying dimension of social history and social justice. (Ages 9–12)

"This ghost story gave me chill after chill. It will haunt you." -- R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps

"Do you know what it feels like to be forgotten?"On a cold winter night, Iris and her best friend, Daniel, sneak into a clearing in the woods to play in the freshly fallen snow. There, Iris carefully makes a perfect snow angel -- only to find the crumbling gravestone of a young girl, Avery Moore, right beneath her.Immediately, strange things start to happen to Iris: She begins having vivid nightmares. She wakes up to find her bedroom window wide open, letting in the snow. She thinks she sees the shadow of a girl lurking in the woods. And she feels the pull of the abandoned grave, calling her back to the clearing...Obsessed with figuring out what's going on, Iris and Daniel start to research the area for a school project. They discover that Avery's grave is actually part of a neglected and forgotten Black cemetery, dating back to a time when White and Black people were kept separate in life -- and in death. As Iris and Daniel learn more about their town's past, they become determined to restore Avery's grave and finally have proper respect paid to Avery and the others buried there.But they have awakened a jealous and demanding ghost, one that's not satisfied with their plans for getting recognition. One that is searching for a best friend forever -- no matter what the cost.The Forgotten Girl is both a spooky original ghost story and a timely and important storyline about reclaiming an abandoned segregated cemetery."A harrowing yet empowering tale reminding us that the past is connected to the present, that every place and every person has a story, and that those stories deserve to be told." -- Renee Watson, New York Times bestselling author of Piecing Me Together