YA, but closer to middle readers. Sweet story of girl power and lots of magical 3s. On the third day in the third month after her 13 birthday, Natasha Blok makes 3 wishes -- one is impossible (for her mother to come back) one is to make come true herself (kissing a boy) and one is the deepest wish of her secret heart. Shortly after this, weird things start happening to her: the Bird Woman, a town character, seeks her out for cryptic verbal messages. She also starts receiving written notes, presumably from a secret admirer which gets her all in a tizzy about a crush that turns out not to be mutual. Meanwhile, her absent-professor father (a lute maker) is even more distant and her 2 Aunts have whispered conversations that include her mother's name and mention of a mysterious Emily. Her 2 younger sisters Darya and Eva are alternately annoying and loving and Natasha in the new moodiness of a teenager who has a lot on her mind and plate alternately hates them and loves them. Mostly love, because she is a really "good"girl who has always put others first, and that is her 3rd wish: to be special to someone else. Nice mix of realism (middle school) and whimsy -- the wishing tree, the Bird Lady, the town's tradition of honoring girls' coming of age. Only downside is that it ends rather abruptly without complete resolution which paves the way for sequels. ( )

Beautiful storytelling, a strong main character, and a little magic combine in a story that will have readers looking for magic all around them.

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Darya has just turned 13 and can now follow a long-shared tradition of making 3 wishes at the Wishing Tree. A wish for an impossible, one they can make come true and the 3rd is their deepest, heart-felt desire. Her older sister, Natasha did hers last year, a younger, Ava, will next year. But Darya already has some magic working in her life. She had long ago asked the mysterious and quirky "Bird Lady" to help her perform a forgetting spell. It worked so well, that she doesn't remember doing it, but snippets return, as needed, to bring what now needs to be done to present. But will Darya allow the magic she denies to happen?

The girls are living with their heart-broken father and the 2 sisters of their mother who disappeared 8 years ago. It's a loving core, albeit damaged by the unknown. Fluttering on the outskirts is the "bird lady" who seems to know all that needs to be done and why anything happens. It's a quirky read with a hidden intent. There is again a long kept secret letters from their mother before she left, but this time, Darya reads it after meeting with her mother. A troubled past intrudes on Darya's present and resentment abounds. I am anxious to read the next book when the youngest, Ava, will make her wishes. That will solve the mystery of Emily, the reason the mother left to begin with.

I won this in a GOODREADS giveaway! ( )