"The Wynns are an unforgettable family. The details of their struggle to survive the Great Depression will linger long after the last page has been read."-Ann M. Martin, winner of the Newbery Honor for A Corner of the Universe A stunning debut novel about the true meaning of home Sadie Wynn doesn't want a new life; her old one suits her just fine. But times are hard in drought-plagued Missouri, and Daddy thinks they'll be better off in Texas. Sadie hates this strange new place, where even children must work at the cannery to help make ends meet and people are rude to her disabled father. Yet when trouble comes, it is the kindness of these new neighbors that helps the family make it through. And no one helps more than Dollie, a red-headed chatterbox of a girl who just might become a good friend-if Sadie gives her half a chance.  The Truth About Sparrows is a 2005 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year. Grade 5-7–Sadie's father is a terrific mechanic and a creative carpenter who can do just about anything except make a living in Dust Bowl Missouri. Resentful about leaving her home, her friend Wilma, and the beautiful table he made that eventually was to have been hers, the 12-year-old is further angered when strangers stare at her dad's polio-withered legs. Relocating to coastal Texas where the fishing industry offers opportunity, the family obtains a one-room tar-paper shack. Promised letters from Wilma fail to arrive, a homeless man living in a cardboard box disappears, and a snobbish town girl constantly humiliates Sadie, causing her to snap when the overly talkative Dollie, with whom she has a budding friendship, tries to console her. The loss of this relationship and a crisis involving the newborn sister Sadie helps deliver cause her to reevaluate what is important. Notwithstanding the myriad challenges to survival, this story has a positive tone. Sadie's father may be down, but he is far from out. Her mom may be keeping house in a tent, but she does so efficiently while cheerfully reminding Sadie that "who you are inside always shows." Best of all, there are true friends willing to be supportive, if only the protagonist would see through her unhappiness. While Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Cat Running (Delacorte, 1994) views the Great Depression through the eyes of the merchant class, Hale highlights the working poor. Rich with social history, this first novel is informative, enjoyable, and evocative. –Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. *Starred Review* Gr. 5-8. "I'd lost more than just a home and a best friend . . . I'd lost a piece of me that I might never find again." Twelve-year-old Sadie is heartbroken when her family, forced by drought and the Depression, leaves their Missouri home for Texas, where Sadie's father hopes to try fishing. The conditions en route are difficult. The family camps, picks cotton ("mean, hot work"), and bathes in cattle troughs before finally settling in a small fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico. In her debut novel, Hale writes a deeply affecting story that, through one family's struggle, brings close the realities of life in the depressed 1930s. Although Sadie's capable, loving parents are a bit too perfect, particularly her crippled father, Hale's evocative, sure prose, in Sadie's colloquial voice, brings alive the setting and the family's survival challenges with cinematic detail that's reminiscent of the Little House books. Sadie emerges as an endearing, complex character who rages against her displacement, even as she sees that other families are much worse off than her own. An excellent choice for class discussion, this captures the difficult specifics of an era, while asking larger questions about what it means to leave a life behind and start again. Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "[A] deeply affecting story . . . Hale's evocative, sure prose . . . brings alive the setting and the family's survival challenges with cinematic detail that's reminiscent of the Little House books." --Booklist, starred review "What could have been just another surviving-the-Depression story is, instead a beautifully realized work, memorable for its Gulf Coast setting and the luminous voice of Sadie Wynn. An important addition to the genre from a new voice." --Kirkus Reviews "Hale has created a character with a strong, lyrical voice. She describes the coastal area so vividly that Sparrows is a breath of fresh air even when it brings tears to your eyes. " --USA Today "[T]riumphant and memorable, as is her entire family--who not only endure the Depression but emerge stronger from it." --The Horn Book Marian Hale is the author of acclaimed historical novels for young adults including Dark Water Rising and The Goodbye Season . She lives with her husband, daughter, and grandbabies on the Texas Coast. CHA