The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney.

Harper, Suzanne. The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney.
Greenwillow(Harper Collins), 2007. $17.89 364p 978-0-06-113159-2
In Lily Dale, New York, a community dedicated to the religion of Spiritualism, tenth-grader Sparrow Delaney, the youngest daughter in an eccentric family of psychics, agonizes over whether to reveal her special abilities to help a friend.
What do you do when you see spirits and you are the 7th daughter of a 7th daughter in a family of psychics and you live in a community of spiritualists? If you are 10th grader Sparrow, you deny your gift and go to a high school as far away from your home as possible. Sparrow’s eccentric family is puzzled by Sparrow’s apparent lack of spiritual gifts, and they continue to hope that she will show some sign of being as gifted as they are. Sparrow has done an admirable job hiding her gifts and her spirit guides, but unfortunately, she can’t hide those gifts from the ghost of Luke, a teenage boy whom she encounters in her new school. The persistent ghost just happens to be the brother of Jack, a boy who catches Sparrow’s interest, and he adamantly maintains that Luke is not dead. Luke needs Sparrow’s psychic gifts to help Jack come to terms with his disappearance and his death. Sparrow needs to claim her gift to accomplish it. She also comes to terms with her abilities when she realizes that it is a gift that can bring healing to others. Sparrow is an entertaining character, as are the spirit guides. The dialog is natural, and the plot moves at a good pace. Luke and Jack’s story have an ending similar to the movie Ghost, which gave the originality of the Sparrow’s world, is probably the only way to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. Nonetheless, this is an entertaining well-written read, with both emotion and wit.
Recommended for collections looking for a lighthearted approach to the supernatural. RZ