Sparrow

By: Sarah Moon
Location: FIC MOO
Genre: Mental Health-Fiction


"I loved this book. It's beautifully written, and it captures a real experience that many middle schoolers face. I can't wait to hand this to my students, fellow teachers, and anyone interested in the mental health of today's teenagers. Sparrow's journey is familiar and important." Chelsea 

Sparrow has always had a difficult time making friends. She would always rather have stayed home on the weekends with her mother, an affluent IT Executive at a Manhattan bank, reading, or watching the birds, than playing with other kids. And that's made school a lonely experience for her. It's made LIFE a lonely experience.

But when the one teacher who really understood her -- Mrs. Wexler, the school librarian, a woman who let her eat her lunch in the library office rather than hide in a bathroom stall, a woman who shared her passion for novels and knew just the ones she'd love -- is killed in a freak car accident, Sparrow's world unravels and she's found on the roof of her school in an apparent suicide attempt.

With the help of an insightful therapist, Sparrow finally reveals the truth of her inner life. And it's here that she discovers an outlet in Rock & Roll music...

"Music is something you listen to with your friends, not your therapist, but I don't have friends, and if I don't look at the tattooed woman in sneakers across from me, I can forget where I am and listen to the insistence and heart coming through the speakers. If I'm not careful, she's going to be able to see my toes tapping through my sneakers. If I'm not careful, I'm going to dance."