If the Witness Lied - Caroline B. Cooney

This young adult thriller takes place in twenty-four hours and explores how people as well as the media can exploit a situation with devastating results, especially when innocent children are involved.


Jack Fountain knows that what's happened to his family sounds like the most horrible soap opera anyone could ever write. But it's all true. It happened-to his parents; to his sisters, Smithy and Madison. And to his baby brother, Tris. What made it worse was that the media wanted to know every detail.

Now it's almost Tris's third birthday, and everything's starting again. Aunt Cheryl, who's living with the Fountain children, has decided that they will heal only if they work through their pain-on camera. It will be a field day for the media, and no one, except Cheryl, wants that. Jack and his sisters gear up to keep Tris's adorable face off-screen, but they quickly realize that there is more at stake than their privacy. The very identities they've created for themselves are called into question. What really happened the day of their father's accident?

The Fountain siblings have less than twenty-four hours to change their fate. Together, they will ask questions no one asked at the time of the tragedy. And together, they vow that this time, they will not be exploited.