Sparrow Road

Sparrow Road by Sheila O’Connor. Published by Penguin Young Readers Group, 2011.

Sparrow Road is the last place Raine wants to spend the summer. She hates leaving her grandfather but her mother accepted a new job at an artists retreat in the country. Raine knows she will be lonely (no other kids are living there) and bored (no TV or radio) and probably go crazy not being able to talk at all (except on Sundays)! What was her mother thinking?

But Sparrow Road turns out to be a pretty interesting place. Raine likes most of the artists, especially Josie. Raine discovers her imaginative, creative side. This is especially true when she learns about the unusual past of Sparrow Road- it was an orphanage for many years. Soon, she is able to not only imagine what it was like for those orphans, but she finds herself developing an unusual relationship with a boy from the past.

Raine is still puzzled by her mother’s decision to accept the summer job. Repeated attempts to ask her mother are ineffective but Raine is determined. She discovers someone she had given up on meeting- her father. The truths she learns about him, his alcoholism and the bad choices of his past continue to reverberate in Raine’s life.

This realistic fiction is recommended for grades 6 and up.   

Visit author Sheila O'Connor's website