The Crooked Tree In The Back Yard, is about a family moving to Oregon to get a fresh start after the mom's divorce. She's bought an old house in the woods which requires a lot of renovation and her two children are not thrilled. They go upstairs to explore their bedrooms and soon discover old news articles plastered to the wall, plus a hidden box which contains clues and a journal and letters about settlers to the area who had made their way west along the Oregon Trail. A mystery develops that links the past to the present as the teenagers delve deeper and deeper into a few of the previous occupants of their new house.