Sparrow

Renowned illustrator E. B. Lewis has illustrated over 70 books for children and won numerous awards, including a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and five Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors. Sparrow is another stellar addition to his life’s work and an apt complement to author Mary Tebo’s sparse and profoundly meaningful, metaphorical text.

“In a very old city, in a very old wall, in a dusty crack ... lives Sparrow.” So begins this lovely tale of a waiting bird, an ancient city, a world filled with divisions, written prayers inserted in the Western Wall, and hope discovered.

Sparrow wakes each morning to the ringing of church bells and voices singing. One morning, Sparrow feels different, even though nothing around her has changed. Even though she doesn’t understand why she feels the way she does, she knows she must prepare for something. She flies through the city on her usual route to the street bakery where someone always drops some bread for her to feast on and to the fruit stand where she often discovers a crushed orange to enjoy. Now that she’s full, she still feels the need to continue her search.

When Sparrow flies to a high vantage point, she searches for something else. She’s not sure what it is, but she knows it will be special. Continuing her quest, she finally flies home to her perch in the old wall, disappointed at her failure to find what she’s looking for. But suddenly Sparrow sees something: “There, far beneath her, the wind lifts something small and fluttery and bright, and Sparrow knows that this is what she is looking for.”

Sparrow makes numerous trips to collect “the perfect things”—prayers written on scraps of paper—and adds them to her nest to make it softer. Then, to her surprise and joy, what she has carried inside her in the last while is now resting snugly in the nest beneath her: “Sparrow does not know what it is, but she knows that it is wonderful. Sparrow knows that it is filled with ... hope.”

Christian adults who spend time enjoying this book with children will have the opportunity to talk about God’s love for the world and the hope that Jesus offers his children for today and the future when he will return to make all things new. (Astra Young Readers)