Secrets at Hidden Valley

As Steffi steps off the bus, the only thing she knows for sure is that this is the last place she wants to be. But she's stuck here, somewhere in northern Michigan, about to stay with a grandfather she's never met, just so her mother can shoot some bad movie. Until that wraps up, Steffi's got nowhere else to go.

But Hidden Valley, the trailer park her grandfather runs, is more intriguing than Steffi could have imagined. All the residents seem to be hiding some deep, dark secret, even her grandfather. Why else would they choose to live in the woods, so far from any town? And why else would they be so afraid of strangers? Steffi decides to investigate. But what she learns about the residents of Hidden Valley isn't half as surprising as what she discovers about herself along the way.

Her books for children include: The View from the Cherry Tree, Megan's Island, The Absolutely True Story...How I Visited Yellowstone Park with the Terrible Rupes, and Twisted Summer.

Secrets at Hidden Valley was written after Mr. and Mrs. Roberts stayed in an RV park in the Florida panhandle that was apparently being run by an eleven-year-old girl named Stephanie. She checked them into the park, sold them groceries from the store, directed them to a site, and generously explained how she managed all the chores she did. There were adults supervising from a distance, but at no one time during their stay did the Roberts encounter any of them. Stephanie -- Steffi in the book -- was a very competent young lady, and just the sort of person Mrs. Roberts looks for in real life to translate into a heroine in a story. All it takes beyond that is to make up a mystery to go with a real person or place, which is also what happened in The Absolutely True Story...How I Visited Yellowstone Park with the Terrible Rupes, based on an adventure she had with six of her twelve grandchildren.