4 Stars

Timothy ‘Sparrow’ Sperling misses his mother. He knows what to wish on a shooting star but falters and ends up asking for snow. Candela hasn’t seen snow in a long, long time. The folks are excited until it doesn’t stop snowing. Candela is covered with snow, so much that people have dug snow tunnels to move around.

Timothy knows needs to do something to save Candela. His uncle, Morris is already deep in despair about what happened in the past. The townsfolk blame Morris even though they are equally to blame for the ‘disaster’.

Timothy finds help from an unexpected source, and of course, it’s his beloved sparrows and a mysterious girl that show him the light. But life doesn’t go as planned, and Timothy needs to be very brave to pull off the job. Can the little kid save Candela from neverending snow?

The book is classified as middle-grade fiction and fits right in. It’s slightly dark and heavy with a few lighter moments. This isn’t a book you read for enjoyment, though magic realism works its magic rather well.

Themes such as conserving nature, ornithology, human greed, and righting the wrong play a prominent role in the book. The prose dips in and out to suit the changing moods. The ending is a little abrupt, though there’s an epilogue to give enough information for readers to imagine the rest.

The cover is beautiful, but there are no other illustrations inside. I so wish there was one for every chapter. The imagery is vivid, and having a few illustrations on the side would have made a lot of difference.

To sum up, Sparrow is a bittersweet book with valuable lessons for kids. But it is heavier than regular middle-grade fiction.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Diving Boy Books and am voluntarily leaving a review.

#NetGalley #Sparrow