Trouble and dog bites and foster kids and Ireland and locked trunks and crows and a best friend who talkstalkstalks…oh, and a boy falling out of a tree, seemingly from another world. If you like mystery and intrigue and trying to connect the dots before the characters figure everything out, give this magical tale a try.

Grown-up portion of review:

There is way too much going on in this book. Creech may be tying everyone together with a gossamer thread, as the general review says, but she's left a lot of loose ends hanging about. What is Finn's purpose in the story? Why is Blackbird Tree full of tragic children? What is Sybil so angry with the Master about, and who is the Master anyway, and how did Sybil end up under his sway but Nula didn't? What about Joe's stolen dogs - why exactly did such a mild character react in that way, and how come the townspeople didn't just go get their dogs back? What accent are Naomi and Lizzie supposed to have? Because they seem like country kids...who imbibed the entire lexicon. How did all those Irish folks end up in Blackbird Tree - did they fall out of the tree, too? And for the love of Pete...why fairies?

So why did I even bother to recommend it to kids? Sometimes kids don't care nearly as much about the loose ends. The story is still funny and has that late-summer-evening-magic feel to it. ( )

Creech writes a story that is part reality, part mystery and part ghostlike. The chapters bounced back and forth between locations (Southern US and Ireland) and I found it a little difficult to navigate and keep track of the characters. It also bounced back and forth between reality and unexplained situations. For these reasons, I did not like the book very well. The intended age group may be more forgiving. ( )

The story itself – specifically, the ending – was way too soppy for my taste; but the characters of the two girls Naomi and Lizzie, especially Lizzie the incessant chatterbox, was delightful ... hence 3½***. ( )

Naomi and her friend, Lizzie Scatterding, are both foster children living in the quiet town of Blackbird Tree. Life takes on a mysterious air when Finn boy and the Dangle Doodle man show up in a town that's already inhabited by such characters as Witch Wiggins and Crazy Cora. Naomi carries the terrible scars, internal and on her arm, of her father’s death and a dog’s attack. Her guardian parents each share their hearts; Nula remembers privation and her estranged family in Ireland, and Joe teaches Naomi to dream and fly high into the clouds for inner peace. In a parallel story across the sea in Ireland, two women talk of times past, lost families and setting things right. Creech, a Newbery Award–winning author, deftly weaves a multi-layered story in which past and present thread their way around Naomi the romantic and Lizzie the singer. With a Finn boy for each generation, there’s joy in the air and in the reading. ( )

This one was a little slow starting for me, the narrator makes such a big difference. Eventually, like all Sharon Creech books, I loved it...