Sparrow Road

by Sheila O'Connor

Overview

It's the summer before seventh grade, and twelve-year- old Raine O'Rourke's mother suddenly takes a job hours from home at mysterious Sparrow Road- a creepy, dilapidated mansion that houses an eccentric group of artists. As Raine tries to make sense of her new surroundings, she forges friendships with a cast of quirky characters including the outrageous and funky Josie.

Together, Raine and Josie decide to solve the mysteries of Sparrow Road-from its haunting history as an orphanage to the secrets of its silent, brooding owner, Viktor. But it's an unexpected secret from Raine's own life that changes her forever.

An affecting and beautifully written story of family and forgiveness, Sparrow Road is an incredible gift.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101515105
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	05/12/2011
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Lexile:	530L (what's this?)
File size:	473 KB
Age Range:	10 Years

About the Author

Shelia O'Connor lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sparrow Road is her debut work for children.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Sparrow Road:
International Reading Association Award 
Midwest Booksellers Choice Awards Finalist
A VOYA Best Book
A Booklist Best Book
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book
A Bank Street Best Book
 
★ “Readers finding themselves in this quiet world will find plenty of space to imagine and dream for themselves.” - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
 
★ "[A] timeless piece of middle-grade fiction. . . . A special book." - Booklist, starred review

“[T]he strength of even imperfect human connections is celebrated through the relationships among a multitude of vivid and varied characters.” – BCCB
 
"Lyrical writing in this first-person narrative, good character development, and a sympathetic heroine will keep readers absorbed." - School Library Journal
 
"Sparrow Road is a book that strikes—and gentles—with Truth. Here is a world of Sorrow and Comfort, crafted by an artist who dares to suggest, without sentimentality but with a hard-nosed realism, that a broken world can be renewed through love and daring and community and art. What a sweet and hopeful and engaging story." - Gary D. Schmidt, Newbery Honor-winning author of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and The Wednesday Wars
 
"Sparrow Road is a place for wishing long and dreaming, and so is this terrific novel.  Sparrow Road is quite wonderful and I recommend it highly." - Karen Cushman author of the Newbery Medal-winning, The Midwife’s Apprentice, and the Newbery Honor-winning Catherine, Called Birdy
 
"Sparrow Road has everything I could ask for in a novel – mysteries, secrets, a creepy mansion with a haunting past, a cast of unforgettable characters, and a twisting tale of self-discovery." - Ann Martin, Newbery Honor-winning author of A Corner of the Universe

From the Publisher

Gr 5–7—Twelve-year-old Raine O'Rourke cannot understand why her single mother has abruptly decided to leave their Milwaukee home and her beloved Grandpa Mac to live and work for the summer at an old Lake Michigan estate. Sparrow Road, once an orphanage, is owned and run as an artist colony by stern, enigmatic Viktor Berglund, who imposes strict rules of conduct such as silence until dinner, and Raine is further restricted from leaving the premises, even as her mother and Viktor make mysterious trips to town. She tries to make the best of the situation, exploring the attic where vestiges of the orphanage give her fodder for her own writing, as she uses slim clues to create the persona of orphan Lyman Chase. With help from Diego, a wise and kindly artist, and flamboyant craftswoman Josie, Raine begins to adjust until the real reason for her mother's decision is revealed: the father she has never even heard of lives nearby and wants to meet and get to know her. What follows is a thoughtful coming-of-age story that explores old and new relationships and conflicting family loyalties as Raine learns important things about herself and is left to make a serious decision about her father. Adding interest to this novel, set in a time before computers and cell phones, is a touch of mystery surrounding the orphanage, and Josie's brainchild of an Art Extravaganza that brings townspeople and former orphans back to Sparrow Road. Lyrical writing in this first-person narrative, good character development, and a sympathetic heroine will keep readers absorbed.—Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

School Library Journal

The mystery of why her mother suddenly took a job at a summer artists' refuge far from home is solved when 12-year-old Raine meets Gray James, the father she never knew.

But that's only a piece of the puzzle of what was and what could be at Sparrow Road and in her life. The crumbling country estate, a former orphanage, is a place readers will want to explore. It is suffused with a sense of longing, the same wistful atmosphere surrounding the characters in this beautifully written novel, with its leisurely revelation of secrets and sad events of the past. Remarkably, O'Connor has peopled her story almost entirely with grown-ups: Raine's family; Viktor, the mysterious owner; and Lillian, Josie, Diego and Eleanor, artists working there for the summer. These are well-developed secondary characters, each with a distinct personality, but this is fully Raine's tale. The adults nurture her, but they also set her free to discover herself, her family and her own artistry. She and Josie, the quilt maker, piece together the history of the house while Raine imagines, dreams and reconstructs her former contentment, shattered by revelations about her father's alcoholism and her grandfather's anger. Set perhaps 30 years ago, the specific time and place are unimportant.

Readers finding themselves in this quiet world will find plenty of space to imagine and dream for themselves.(Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews