DescriptionBlair Humphreys’s Secret is about a misfit girl named Blair Humphreys. Blair’s father has died, mother is insane, and is routinely ridiculed by her classmates. Blair herself is extremely tall for her age and quite thin. She is a brooding loner. At the age of six, after having lived alone with her lunatic mother for several months, Blair’s grandmother (whom she calls “Gram”) comes to live with her. Blair hadn’t seen Gram since she was about four years old. Gram had flitted in and out of Blair’s life, showing up between research projects. When the story begins, Blair is twelve years old. It is
Halloween night and there appear to be monsters lurking in the bushes outside Blair’s home. In reality, the “monsters” are Blair’s classmates—the ones who have been tormenting her. They have come to witness the specter that appears on stormy nights on
the roof of the Humphreys’s home. The specter is Blair’s mother, who raves and mumbles on the rooftop. Blair and Gram share a tender relationship. Gram is always trying to nurture Blair and help her to confront her demons. Gram is forever trying to build up Blair’s confidence. Gram is a mysterious figure. She has spent most of her life as an entomologist and archaeologist, traveling the world from one research project to
another. The same night the “monsters” haunt Blair’s garden, Gram gives Blair a mysterious ring with a blue star sapphire in its setting. Blair quickly discovers that the ring transports her into a strange cave in the woods near her home. The cave walls glow with a blue light. Blair tries to discover what other secrets the ring holds, but her efforts are in vain. One day her tormentors, the same gang that haunted her garden, witness her
disappearing. They wait for her to return and force her to take them to the cave. Once there, Blair soon discovers that her tormentors hold the key to unlocking the potential of the ring and the cave.