Immy and her parents have moved from Sydney, Australia, to a small town just outside Cambridge, England. Both Immy's parents are doctors, and although they told her they've moved for her heart surgeon mom's new job, Immy knows they also left Australia because of her dad's depression: He's been unable to work since an accident involving one of his former patients. They rent Lavender Cottage despite warnings that the gnarled, centuries-old mulberry tree in the backyard was responsible for the disappearance of two girls -one in the 18th century, one in 1945 -on the eve of their 11th birthdays. To soon-to-turn 11 Immy, who is white, the tree does feel ominous, but neither she nor her parents believe the stories. Their new neighbor Jean is truly worried for Immy, however: It was her best childhood friend who disappeared in 1945. Almost everyone in town, it turns out, has beliefs and prejudices shaped by stories about the tree, and Immy is drawn into researching the missing girls and the mulberry tree's history. At the same time, she's trying to fit in at a new school, and struggling with feelings of frustration and anger at her dad's inability to function. A novel that is tense and eerie is also compassionate and insightful as it weaves realism and the supernatural into a story where elements of the present parallel the past, and forgiveness and healing go hand-in-hand. (Ages 9-12)

Is the eerie tree beside their bucolic cottage really a threat to ten-year-old Immy? Legend and hearsay give way to a creepy series of events in a captivating mystery.

Do naught wrong by the mulberry tree, or she'll take your daughters . . . one, two, three.

Ten-year-old Immy and her family have run away from their storm cloud of problems to a tiny village in Cambridgeshire, England, where her depressed physician father can take a sabbatical and get back on his feet. Luckily, they find an adorable thatched cottage to begin a new life in. But their new home comes with one downside: in the backyard, there is an ancient, dark, and fierce-looking mulberry tree that has ceased bearing any fruit. There's a legend that the towering tree steals away girls who live in the cottage on the eve of their eleventh birthday, and villagers even cross the street when they pass by the house. Of course, Immy thinks this is all ridiculous. But then she starts to hear a strange song in her head. . . . In a page-turner perfect for middle-graders, Allison Rushby folds themes of new-school travails, finding friends, being embarrassed by parents, and learning empathy into a deliciously goose-bumpy supernatural mystery.