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PICTURE BOOKS
Tebo, Mary

Sparrow

32 pp. | Astra | August, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9781635926880 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 9781635926897 $10.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by E. B. Lewis. Set at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, this picture book follows a sparrow who lives in "a very old wall, in a dusty crack." She wakes daily to the sounds of church bells and singing voices. One morning, her "belly full," Sparrow senses something momentous, knows she must prepare, and soars over the city in search of what she needs. It's not the dropped bread near the bakery, the crushed oranges at the fruit stand, or the drifting balloon. When she returns to the wall, she sees it: "something small and fluttery and bright." She tucks the found scrap into her nest. After a moment of "fear. Then pain. Then joy," she lays an egg, not sure what it is, only that it is "filled with...hope." Lewis's soft watercolor illustrations use muted tones to evoke the reverence of the setting, with glowing warmth entering the final spreads as new life arrives. An author's note explains the significance of the Western Wall (which is never explicitly named in the text) and the notes that people of many faiths tuck into its cracks, "a gesture of belief in a better world." This ode to renewal and quiet faith is both a glimpse into life's sacred moments and a tender meditation on motherhood and hope, exploring the unseen forces that guide even the smallest lives toward something greater.
Reviewer: Janet Daniels | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2025

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