The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper
The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney
- VOYA: 5Q4P J
- Lexile Level: 840L
- Reading level: Young Adult
- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: HarperTeen (May 27, 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0061131601
- ISBN-13: 978-0061131608
Coming from a well-known family is not always a good thing, especially if you are Sparrow Delaney, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter in a notoriously psychic family in the spiritualist enclave of Lily Dale. Everyone expects Sparrow to mature into one of the strongest mediums around, but frankly, she just wants a normal life. While she tells her family that she’s never seen much less spoken to a ghost, Sparrow’s psychic powers are truly magnificent and a certain handsome ghost that haunts her new school is not letting up no matter how much she ignores him. So much for a normal life.
Sparrow and her sisters, each named for a species of bird by their now missing ornithologist father, provide a wide range of personalities and quirks that keep readers wanting more. While Sparrow’s interest in Jack and her interest in helping Luke find peace are very interesting, the best part of this novel is clearly the characters. Lily Dale is a real place, and its history is well-chronicled here along with several of its real-life residents. Harper’s strength, however, lies in her fully imagined characters who positively leap off of the page. Each one is more outrageous than the last, and all provide a spellbinding read sure to keep readers entertained for hours.
