⇒ PDF The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney Suzanne Harper 9780061131585 Books

The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney Suzanne Harper 9780061131585 Books

Download As PDF : The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney Suzanne Harper 9780061131585 Books

The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney Suzanne Harper 9780061131585 Books

My rating is 4.5 stars.

The seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, living in a family in which everyone has some psychic ability in Lily Dale, a (real) town full of spiritualists, Sparrow, who has been seeing, smelling and speaking to ghosts since she was just a tot (and denying her ability to do so to her family) wants nothing more than to be a normal girl. Of course, the ghosts have other ideas and one - one very appealing and persistent one - isn't prepared to leave Sparrow alone until she helps him.

I've read a number of books with a similar `I see dead people' premise over the last few years and I can say honestly that The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney is my favorite. Author Suzanne Harper has created likeable characters and a story filled with charm, humor and more poignancy than I was expecting. I really cared about these people - both the living and the dead ones.

I haven't read anything about a planned sequel, but I hope Harper is planning one. I want to spend more time with Sparrow and Jack, with Sparrow's eccentric family and with her spirit guides. I even hope to see Luke again. While I'm waiting, I've ordered Harper's unrelated novel, The Juliet Club, to see what the author does with another genre.

The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney is an entertaining and satisfying story. Recommended.


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The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney Suzanne Harper 9780061131585 Books Reviews

For Sparrow Delaney, having to switch schools before starting tenth grade isn't a curse--it's a blessing. All her life she's wanted to be normal, and now that she's found a chance to start over, she's not about to let anything ruin it. But it's hard to live a normal life when your sisters, mother, and grandmother are all mediums, in contact with the spirit world, and when you live in Lily Dale, New York, a town devoted to spiritualism where séances are regular activities and everyone you meet has some affinity for the dead. It only gets harder when you hear the dead, too.

As the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, Sparrow is an exceptionally powerful medium. She's been seeing ghosts since she was five years old, and she knows her talents far surpass those of anyone else she's met. But Sparrow has always wanted more from life than being a medium, so from a young age, she's hidden her gifts, pretending that she cannot communicate with the dead at all. She sees her move to a new school as a chance to finally break away from the teasing that's always followed her, and the first step in becoming someone who has no need for annoying spirits who refuse to Move On.

Unfortunately for Sparrow, the spirits don't care too much about what she wants. On the first day of school, the spirit of a teen named Luke appears to her and urges her to help him solve the problems that are keeping him from Moving On. Sparrow ignores him at first, but Luke is more persistent than the other ghosts she's shrugged off over the years, and eventually she finds herself grudgingly listening to his story. Sparrow also has to deal with a history project partner, Will, who decides they should focus their local history report on Lily Dale and "those psychic quacks" who live there. Not to mention the continued worrying of her mother, grandmother, and sisters about her apparent lack of talents.

I came into this story less than thrilled by the premise, but I was quickly won over by Sparrow's first-person voice as she articulated all of the difficulties of being a teenage medium trying to hide her talents. The author does a good job of painting realistic--albeit quirky--relationships between Sparrow and her family members and new-found friends. The intricacies of her interactions with Luke and Will kept me wanting to know more about all of the characters involved. Even readers put off by the story's fantastic premise will be sucked into the drama of Sparrow's life and fly through the plot's twists and turns until they reach what I felt was a very satisfying conclusion.

Reviewed by Candace Cunard
A wonderful YA novel set in the real Victorian Spiritualist community of Lily Dale, NY. The characters and situations created in this book are fabulously textured. This is the kind of book any tween and teen girl who likes Harry Potter is going to love. This book encapsulates the magic of being a teenage girl and the empowering thing about making your own path and coming into your own skin. I hope to see a second book, and would be quite disappointed not to see one!

Thank you for writing such a cool book!
Cheers,
Sally Richards
This book surprised me with it's content. I expected it to be a typical story of a teenage girl, but what surprised me was the depth and complexity of Sparrow's feelings. The storyline doesn't just happen, as in many stories, but rather unfolds with startling sweetness and poignancy. As (the main character)Sparrow is thrust into a psychic mystery, she finds herself sacrificing friendship, acceptance, and even love-all to uncover the truth.
I give this book 4/5 stars. This book was perhaps a bit young for me, but I would love to see a sequel. I recommend this book a lot.
This has been my first and most favorite book of all time, it brings back good memories!!!
It is well written, it has a good plot and setting, not to mention great characters with a lot of feelings and personality!!!
My rating is 4.5 stars.

The seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, living in a family in which everyone has some psychic ability in Lily Dale, a (real) town full of spiritualists, Sparrow, who has been seeing, smelling and speaking to ghosts since she was just a tot (and denying her ability to do so to her family) wants nothing more than to be a normal girl. Of course, the ghosts have other ideas and one - one very appealing and persistent one - isn't prepared to leave Sparrow alone until she helps him.

I've read a number of books with a similar `I see dead people' premise over the last few years and I can say honestly that The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney is my favorite. Author Suzanne Harper has created likeable characters and a story filled with charm, humor and more poignancy than I was expecting. I really cared about these people - both the living and the dead ones.

I haven't read anything about a planned sequel, but I hope Harper is planning one. I want to spend more time with Sparrow and Jack, with Sparrow's eccentric family and with her spirit guides. I even hope to see Luke again. While I'm waiting, I've ordered Harper's unrelated novel, The Juliet Club, to see what the author does with another genre.

The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney is an entertaining and satisfying story. Recommended.