Ada fourth, fifth and sixth graders - Tween Book Group - start reading the January book discussion choice from the Ada Public Library.

Tween meets to discuss "Crispin: The Cross of Lead," by Avi, at 4 p.m., Friday, Jan. 10, at the library.

Here's a summary of the plot:

Begins with a funeral, that of a village outcast whose past is shrouded in mystery and whose adolescent son is known only as "Asta's son."

Mired in grief for his mother, the boy learns his given name, Crispin, from the village priest, although his presumably dead father's identity remains obscure. The words etched on his mother's treasured lead cross may provide some clue, but the priest is murdered before he can tell the illiterate lad what they say.

Worse, Crispin is fingered for the murder by the manor steward, who declares him a "wolf's head" wanted dead or alive, preferably dead. Crispin flees, and falls in with a traveling juggler. "I have no name," Crispin tells Bear, whose rough manners and appearance mask a tender heart.

"No home, no kin, no place in this world." How the boy learns his true identity...and finds his place in the world makes for a rattling fine yarn."  --Publisher Weekly

Future Tween book discussions follow:

February: A Wrinkle in Time (Graphic Novel), Hope Larson

March: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E. L. Konigsburg

April: The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

May: Catherine, Called Birdy, Karen Cushman

June: Lincoln: A photobiography, Russell Freedman