Erin is severely dyslexic. The rest of her family, bright and efficient, try to help her by structuring her life. When she is left for the summer with Aunt Joan, her self-esteem hits rock bottom. But in fact, stroppy Aunt Joan knows a lot about teaching children with dyslexia, and, slowly, Erin begns to see things she hasn't seen before. She is seriously musical with perfect pitch and plays the piano by ear, but notes on a page are as unreadable as words on a page, and she has no belief in her talent. When she begins to experience supernatural occurances due to a toy box full of castle blocks and lead knights and squires, she retreats into this make-believe world more and more. She also makes the supernatural acquaintance of a boy called Con, another musical dyslexic - who turns out to be her rather sad uncle. It isn't really the fantasy elements of this book that give it strength, though; it is Erin's growing knowledge that hard work and learning to do things in different ways, putting her 'black angel' - her negativeness'- behind her will bring her through in the end. An excellent read.