Sparrow by Sarah Moon

Title: Sparrow
Author: Sarah Moon
Publisher:  Scholastic
ISBN: 978-1338032581
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 272
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4 Stars

As an introvert, Sparrow’s life has not been easy. She has been prone to reading and being by herself, which isn’t a bad thing at all. She prefers watching birds, and spending time with her high-flying mother, who is an IT executive at a Brooklyn bank. She has no friends and her world is limited to books and her teacher, Mrs. Wexler, the school librarian. She is the perfect friend Sparrow has – she doesn’t speak much and knows exactly what book Sparrow will like next. Till tragedy takes place and Mrs. Wexler dies in a freak accident. From then on, Sparrow is left all alone – miserable and lonely, almost wanting to commit suicide. Sparrow enters therapy and her world changes like never before. Enter: Rock & Roll music.

This is the plot of “Sparrow” by Sarah Moon. Sarah knows how to decode a teenager’s head. What goes on in Sparrow’s mind is almost bang-on. In fact, many a time I was transported to my teenage years and that had me nodding in affirmation to everything that was going on in the book. Moon’s prose is bang-on in so many parts, especially when she describes Sparrow with a book or her new-found love and the solace Rock & Roll brings to her life.

The book touches on mental health issues delicately and I wish it had probed a little further on it, though it is there and does address it in more than one way. The story doesn’t stray and I enjoyed Sparrow’s transition from grieving to loss to contemplating suicide to seeing things and life for what they were. Sarah Moon doesn’t glorify anything. If anything, she tells a story the way it is meant to be told – in an honest way. Just for that “Sparrow” deserves one read at least. Also, because it is rather warm in a lot of places.