Secret Societies

The storyThe Blanket Fort Club — Three friends build a clubhouse. Then a new girl comes to the door.

The storyThe Secret Card for Grandma — Eli keeps a happy secret for Grandma. Then he learns about a different kind of secret.

The storyThe Picture on the Old Building — Maya sees a carved picture high on an old building. What is it trying to say?

The storyNotes About the Cookies — Two sisters send notes in a secret code. Can you find the cookies?

The storyTom Signs His First Stone — A young builder finishes his very first stone. How will everyone know it is his?

The storyHelp Comes to the Door — Papa is too sick to work. Who will help the family now?

The storyThe Walk to Eleusis — A young woman from Athens joins thousands of walkers on a road that leads to a secret.

The storyThe Last Day of the Dig — On the final day of a dig in London, a face from the Roman world comes up out of the mud.

The storyA Receipt for the Road — A traveler in France is scared to carry his money on a long trip. The knights next door have an idea.

The storyThe Parchment in the Wrong Place — In 2001, a historian in the Vatican finds a parchment that had been out of sight for hundreds of years.

The storyA Pen in Winter — In January 1777, a free Black man in Boston signs his name on a paper that asks for freedom for all.

The storyThe Envelope From the Lodge — In 1890, a widow in Chicago opens an envelope that will help her family get through a hard year.

The storyShapes on an Old Stone — A visitor in a busy New York churchyard spots a row of strange shapes carved on a gravestone.

The storyA Book Nobody Could Read — Three researchers in two countries stare at a handwritten book that nobody had read for almost 300 years.

The storyOne Line in a Diary — In 1646, a scholar writes one short sentence in his diary, and historians are still talking about it.

The storyThe Eye on the Dollar — A student holds up a one-dollar bill and asks a question that takes the whole class back to 1776.

The storyComing Home from the Sande School — After weeks away learning from the women of her community, a girl in Sierra Leone walks back into her village as a young woman.

The storyA Sign at the Tea Stall — Far from home and out of money, a young man remembers the sign his sworn brothers taught him.

The storyA Carriage in the Dark — On a September night in 1826, a man walks out of a small-town jail in New York and is never seen again.

The storyThe March to the Courthouse — In April 1855, a fight over beer licenses in Chicago turns into a clash in the street.

The storyA Letter Under the Bakery Door — One morning in Chicago, a baker finds a letter with no name, only a black handprint and a demand for money.

The storyThree Ledgers in a Government Office — A tax agent searching old seized records finds three notebooks that tie Al Capone to his money.

The storyA House Search in Landshut — In October 1786, Bavarian officers search a man's home and carry off the papers of a secret order.

The storyA Warning From the Pulpit — On a fast day in 1798, a famous Boston minister tells his listeners that a secret order is working against America.

The storyA Long Road to Washington — In 1871, a farmer who lived through a night raid carries his story to Congress.

The storyNames in the Morning Paper — In 1922, a Chicago weekly called Tolerance prints the names of people it says belong to the Klan.

The storyHands on the Screen — In March 1951, millions of Americans stop what they are doing to watch a Senate hearing on live television.

The storyStickers in the Night — On one June night in 2004, a few young people in Palermo quietly change what their city talks about.

The storyAn Old Book in Constantinople — In 1921 a British reporter is handed a worn French book and finds the famous secret plan already inside it.

The storyPages No One Remembers — In 1967 a thin typed file about a secret priory enters France's national library, and a legend begins to grow from it.

The storyThe Boxes in the Money Files — In 1977 the CIA finds records of a secret program that were supposed to have been destroyed four years earlier.

The storyEight Citizens in Media — In March 1971, eight people break into a small FBI office in Pennsylvania and mail its files to reporters.

The storyA Voice on the Night Road — Somewhere on an interstate in the 1990s, a trucker turns a dial and finds a voice that tells him not to trust what he is told.

The storyThe Eye on the Dollar — A high school senior sets out to prove something she has believed since middle school, and the evidence takes her somewhere she did not expect.