Her grandparents are kind, generous people, but they aren't exactly ideal playmates for a lonely girl. When Miriam is not doing homework in the kitchen with Bubby or helping prepare meals for the migrant workers that Zayde hires to help out on the farm, she plays with the barn kittens born just before she arrived. Those kittens are her only friends, until the day Miriam discovers a young girl hiding in the barn. Cissy and her brother, Joe, who's one of Zayde's farm hands, are on the run from an abusive uncle back in Mississippi. Miriam and Cissy hit it off immediately. But their friendship is tested when Miriam is forced to choose between keeping a promise and doing the right thing.
Debby Waldman is the author of a number of children's books including A Sack Full of Feathers Miriam’s Secret and has written for publications including People, Publishers Weekly, Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for Kids. An educator, she has taught writing and journalism at Cornell University, Ithaca College, St. Lawrence University and Grant MacEwan University. Since 2011 she has been a writing advisor at the Academic Success Centre at the University of Alberta. She lives in Edmonton.