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School Library Journal
Reviewed on August 1, 2012 | Grades 5-up
Gr 5–7—After an epigraph, prologue, and first chapter that increasingly pull readers in deeper and deeper, The Great Unexpected-part realistic fiction, part mystery, and part ghost story-disappoints. In the small, probably Southern town of Blackbird Tree, orphaned 12-year-old Naomi Deane receives a whack on the head as an inert boy tumbles down from a tree. Joined by her motormouth friend, Lizzie Scatterding, she pronounces the boy "dead," but he soon sits up and starts asking questions in a strange accent-clearly, he's not from around there. Naomi...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Horn Book Magazine
Reviewed on September 1, 2012
Best friends and orphans Naomi Deane and Lizzie Scatterding are surprised when a strange boy falls out of a tree in their little town of Blackbird Tree, USA. His name is Finn, and Naomi falls immediately under his spell ("as if I’d been hypnotized, and Finn boy had infiltrated my brain like a virus"). Meanwhile, in Ireland, an old woman and her companion talk of murder and revenge. To say the two plots converge is a massive understatement, as connections and coincidences and old and new love triangles and boys named Finn amass and ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Horn Book Guide
Reviewed on January 1, 2012
A strange boy falls out of a tree in Blackbird Tree, USA. Meanwhile, in Ireland, an old woman and her companion talk of murder and r...Log In or Sign Up to Read More