Reflecting the old magpie rhyme, 'one for sorrow, two for joy', etc., this series of letters between Ruby in the city and her Grampa in the country are quite magical. Ruby and her parents live a happy but hard-pressed life in their high-rise flat, but Grampa writes to her about the magpies in his garden, and she is intrigued. Ruby becomes 'three for a girl'when Grampa sees three magpies on the day her letter arrives, and her new brother is 'four for a boy' because there are four in the tree the day he is born. But Grampa is ill, and as he grows weaker, he tells Ruby about his 'secret never to be told' - that he has been 'collecting shiny things' like the magpies, and that someday she will have them all. When a solitary magpie comes to Ruby's city balcony, she knows this is the 'one for sorrow' she has been somehow dreading and that Grampa is dead. When she finds the treasure in the hollow magpie tree, there are 'two for joy' on the branch nearby, and Ruby and her family can move into Grampa's old house and live happily ever after. Wonderful watercolour illustrations, with the letters interwoven, help make the book outstanding.