The Great Unexpected Hardcover - 2012

From the rear cover

I had big thoughts to match the big wind. I wondered if we find the people we need when we need them. I wondered if we attract our future by some sort of invisible force, or if we are drawn to it by a similar force. I felt I was turning a corner and that change was afoot.

In the little town of Blackbird Tree live two orphan girls: one Naomi Deane, brimming with curiosity, and her best friend, Lizzie Scatterding, who could talk the ears off a cornfield. Naomi has a knack for being around when trouble happens. For she knows all the peculiar people in town--like Crazy Cora and Witch Wiggins and Mr. Farley. But then, one day, a boy drops out of a tree. The strangely charming Finn boy. Then the Dingle Dangle man appears, asking all kinds of questions. Curious surprises are revealed--three locked trunks, a pair of rooks, a crooked bridge, and that boy. Soon Naomi and Lizzie find themselves zooming toward a future neither could ever have imagined. Meanwhile, on a grand estate across the ocean, an old lady whose heart has been deceived concocts a plan. . . .

As two very different worlds are woven together, Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech celebrates the gossamer thread that connects us all, and the great and unexpected gifts of love, friendship, and forgiveness.

Media reviews

Citations

• Booklist, 06/01/2012, Page 100
• BookPage, 09/01/2012, Page 0
• Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks, 11/01/2012, Page 0
• Horn Book Magazine, 09/01/2012, Page 84
• Hornbook Guide to Children, 01/01/2013, Page 0
• Kirkus Bea Big Book Guide, 05/15/2012, Page 55
• Kirkus Reviews, 05/15/2012, Page 0
• New York Times Book Review, 11/11/2012, Page 36
• Publishers Weekly, 07/16/2012, Page 169
• School Library Journal, 08/01/2012, Page 102
• Shelf Awareness, 09/14/2012, Page 0