In a predominately white California beach town, the only two black seventh-graders, Alberta and Edie, find hidden journals that uncover family secrets and speak to race relations in the past.

"Beach-loving surfer Alberta each-has been the only black girl in town for years. Alberta's best friend, Laramie, is the closest person she has to a sister, but there are some things even she can't understand. When the bed and breakfast across the street fifinds new owners, Alberta is ecstatic to learn the family is black -- and they have a twelve-year-old daughter just like her. Alberta is positive she and the new girl, Edie, will be fast friends. But while Alberta loves being a California girl, Edie misses her native Brooklyn and fifinds it hard to adapt to small-town living. Suddenly, the fast track to friendship doesn't seem so easy. When the girls discover a box of old journals in Edie's attic, they team up and secretly begin investigating who the journals belonged to and why they got left behind. As the mystery unravels, the girls are led to the painful truth behind the journals and the shocking discovery of the story within."--