The Mountain Shack Mystery by Whitley, Reba

The Great Bear Mountains of Tennessee are mysterious and wonderful. For everyone who lives on this glorious mountain range, with acres of giant, beautiful trees, their families have been there for hundreds of years. The only newcomers are the ones recently born on the mountain, or those who have been approved for very short vacation visits. That's the way the mountain people wanted it.

Only five families started out on this mountain, and those five families have grown into over two thousand citizens living there. They fought long and hard to have the right to choose who comes and goes on their mountain. It is now a community law: if the mountain people don't approve of you, you're out! Well, that is, if they know you're on their mountain...

Something very strange was discovered while Jodi O'Connor was visiting her family on Bear Mountain. No one there had experienced anything like it before, and they hoped to never come across anything like it again! The peaceful mountain had become scary and unknown. How could something so awful, so cruel happen right under their nose? This was one time the people of the mountain agreed that they needed and welcomed outsiders to come and stay as long as necessary to deal with this horrible nightmare that had come to their beautiful, peaceful mountain.