The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher by Jessica Lawson

This book is a 2014 release, and I gave it a rating of five out of five. Becky is a mischievous young girl whose family has just moved to a town by the Mississippi River; think of a female version of Tom Sawyer. Life is never dull around Becky Thatcher. She befriends the daughter of the town drunk, and they accept a challenge to steal from the house of the town witch. Becky protects herself from evil spirits by using superstitious spells, and this includes a midnight visit to the graveyard. She sees two murderous robbers digging up a grave, and they threaten to kill her if she tells anyone.

It's unusual to find a female character who is this sneaky and gets into as much mischief as Becky Thatcher. Tom Sawyer is actually a "goody, goody" character who tells the truth and does as he's told. Becky's life is complicated as the daughter of a judge and having a mother who hasn't gotten over the recent death of her son. Becky also deals with the memory of her brother by carrying his sack of marbles during her adventures. It's cool how the author infers that Mark Twain's stories about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are largely based on Becky and her brother.