The Truth About Sparrows by Marian Hale 

My rating: B+

 

It’s the 1930’s. The Depression is taking hold across the nation. People are starving and losing their homes. Sadie’s family is forced to move from their farm in Missouri when times start to get tough. They head to the Texas coast in search of a better life. Sadie loses her best friend, the only home she’s ever known, and her sense of being along with it. Forced to live in a cardboard and tar paper shanty on the “bay rat” side of town, Sadie’s eyes are opened to the world around her and just how bad people actually have it.

 

What a charming story about a young girl during the Great Depression! I found this as I was browsing the new release shelf in the YA section at my library. I love historical fiction, and this was no exception. The characters were believable and you couldn’t help but root for them. It was a really great story of a girl growing into her own and starting to realize that the world is bigger than her little house. Even though this was categorized as YA, I would almost hazard to put it in the Middle Grades category. The main character was only in 7th grade, and there really wasn’t anything in here that would keep young readers from understanding the plot or being drawn to it.