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A review by lisavegan
Sparrow Girl by Sara Pennypacker
4.0
I really liked this historical fiction picture book. I love how it shows what a huge difference one person can make. a young child in this case. I also appreciate the ecology lesson, in this case how sparrows kept the locusts away and therefore were the true protectors of the crops.
I wasn’t that wild about the illustrations, though the colors, hues, and atmosphere fit the story well. The people’s faces really didn’t work at all for me though. I found them creepy and they detracted from the story for me.
There is a short author’s note in the back of the book about the Sparrow War of 1958 in China. I’m always amazed at what goes on in the world, even events during my lifetime, of which I knew nothing. This little book was a good, quick way to learn about what happened. Now I’m interested in learning more, either by reading a historical fiction or non-fiction book. I think an adult book would have an ending less happy than the one in this book, but who knows what pockets of the Chinese population might have done. Here, if the events depicted are at all accurate, I learned how easily it is to kill sparrows. Scary!
This is a great book to show children that one person can make a difference, and that sometimes it’s good to disobey, to disagree. It’s also a great book to study the environment/ecosystems. I also like how it showed people can develop empathy for others. Good for independent readers and for reading aloud, one to one or to groups.
I wasn’t that wild about the illustrations, though the colors, hues, and atmosphere fit the story well. The people’s faces really didn’t work at all for me though. I found them creepy and they detracted from the story for me.
There is a short author’s note in the back of the book about the Sparrow War of 1958 in China. I’m always amazed at what goes on in the world, even events during my lifetime, of which I knew nothing. This little book was a good, quick way to learn about what happened. Now I’m interested in learning more, either by reading a historical fiction or non-fiction book. I think an adult book would have an ending less happy than the one in this book, but who knows what pockets of the Chinese population might have done. Here, if the events depicted are at all accurate, I learned how easily it is to kill sparrows. Scary!
This is a great book to show children that one person can make a difference, and that sometimes it’s good to disobey, to disagree. It’s also a great book to study the environment/ecosystems. I also like how it showed people can develop empathy for others. Good for independent readers and for reading aloud, one to one or to groups.