The Great Unexpected / Sharon Creech / 226 pages / Ireland

"Did a delicate cobweb link us all, silky lines trailing through the air?"  "Call it coincidence, fate, or just old-fashioned magic, but the characteres in Sharon Creech's latest novel are connected to one another."  -Booklist.  Two orphan girls live in the town of Balckbird Tree.  Naomi Deane is curious and has a knack for being around when trouble happens, and her friend, Lizzie Scatterding "could talk the ears off a cornfield."  The girls volunteer to help the poor, old, unfortunates (cranky senior citizens) who serendipitously help to tie up loose ends.  We have two Finn boys - one who drops out of trees, and one who caused the alienation of two sisters.  This story of how the girls came to inherit a great Irish estate is most enjoyable.