From Newbery Medal winner and bestselling author Sharon Creech comes a grand, sweeping yarn that is a celebration of the great and unexpected gifts of love, friendship, and forgiveness. With a starred review from Kirkus Reviews calling it an "enchanting tale to treasure," The Great Unexpected captures the heart and the imagination.

Humorous and heartfelt, this is a story of pairs--of young Naomi and Lizzie, both orphans in present-day Blackbird Tree, USA, and of Sybil and Nula, grown-up sisters from faraway Rook's Orchard, Ireland, who have become estranged.

Young Naomi Deane is brimming with curiosity and her best friend, Lizzie Scatterding, could talk the ears off a cornfield. Naomi has a knack for being around when trouble happens. She knows all the peculiar people in town--like Crazy Cora and Witch Wiggins. But then, one day, a boy drops out of a tree. Just like that. A strangely charming Finn boy. And 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--and soon Naomi and Lizzie find their lives changed forever.

As two worlds are woven together, Creech reveals that hearts can be mended and that there is indeed a gossamer thread that connects us all.

Author: Sharon Creech
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 09/04/2012
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 8.52h x 5.85w x 0.86d
ISBN: 9780061892325
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.3
Point Value: 6
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 153512 / Great Unexpected


Award: Massachusetts Children's Book Award Nominee - Children's Book


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 06/01/2012 pg. 100
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2012
Publishers Weekly 07/16/2012 pg. 169
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2012 pg. 1644
School Library Journal 08/01/2012 pg. 102
Horn Book Magazine 09/01/2012 pg. 84
Shelf Awareness 09/14/2012
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 11/01/2012
New York Times Book Review 11/11/2012 pg. 36
Kirkus Bea Big Book Guide 05/15/2012 pg. 55
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2013 - Superior,Well Above Average
BookPage 09/01/2012

About the Author
Creech, Sharon: -

Sharon Creech has written twenty-one books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain's Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler.

Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband now live in Maine, "lured there by our grandchildren," Creech says.

www.sharoncreech.com