The Mulberry Tree by Allison Rushby
Release: July 14th 2020
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Source: Netgalley
Synopsis:
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.
Mulberry Tree Review:
A BIG Thank You to Netgalley and Candlewick Press for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy of “The Mulberry Tree” for my review.
This was a really entertaining book and many reasons why I enjoyed it.
Firstly, I loved the overall theme. It is a well written spooky, middle grade book that is intriguing but not too creepy. It’s one of those stories that a person of any age group would enjoy reading. The author provides quite a few twists and turns so you really don’t know where the story is going.
Immy is a nice character who is inquisitive and eager to solve the mystery of the tree. I also liked her friendship with Riley. The author talks about various conflicts of the new kid like adjusting and making friends. One thing that stood out for me was Immy’s relationship with her father. I really liked how the author realistically portrayed Immy’s anger at her father and did not try to sugarcoat it.
Moreover, I just loved the author’s style of writing. She has a very fluid, simple yet gripping way of telling a story. I would love to read some of other novels. On a side note, I also loved the part science fiction time travel element that happens towards the end. It was interesting to see how Immy’s actions had consequences.
I wished they didn’t focus on the father so much and his issues. Personally I feel that if you have been a doctor for many years, you should be able to copy with such incidents. I didn’t find it plausible that the father was in the medical field for many years and still could not deal with what happened. It would have been nice if the author focused on the past girls like Elizabeth. I would have liked if they even focused more on Caitlyn and what she was going through.
Overall, I this is a really nice book that is worth reading!
