Grandpa stopped speaking the day he killed my brother, John. His name was John until Grandpa said he looked more like a Bird with the way he kept jumping off things, and the name stuck. Bird's thick, black hair was like the head feathers of the blackbirds, Grandpa said, and he bet that one day Bird would fly like one too. Grandpa kept talking like that, and no one paid him much notice until Bird jumped off a cliff. From that day on, Grandpa never spoke another word. Not one. The day that Bird tried to fly, the grown-ups were out looking for him all of them except Mom and Granny. That's because that very day, I was born. Nothing matters. Only Bird matters. And he flew away. Jewel never knew her brother, Bird; he died on the day she was born. But all her life she has lived in his shadow. Her home is filled with secrets, and her grieving grandfather has not uttered a single word in twelve years. Then one night, on her birthday, she finds a mysterious boy sitting in her oak tree. He has the same name as her brother. And he changes everything.