This book is about a girl named sadie who lives in the time of the dust bowl. the father moves the family to Texas were they be friend a family with abunch of children the family tells Sadies family both families help each other out. in the end sadies mom has another child and the family lives. she falls in love with the other families oldest son and he falls in love with her. i left names out because you should read the book to find out.

Marian Hale tells the story about a young girl named Sadie Wynn and her family in her historical fiction novel “The Truth about Sparrows”. The year is 1933 when Sadie and her family pack up their things to move to Texas. They are forced to leave behind some of their most prized possessions such as the wooden table that her daddy made for them. “Mama said there’d be no cake this year. She said I was getting a whole new life for my birthday instead.” (Pg.1) Sadie also has to leave her best friend, Wilma, which she makes Sadie promise they will always be friends. As they’re driving to Texas, they stay at a place where people pick cotton all day long. There, they meet Dollie Gillem and her family. Both families are headed the same way and they instantly become friends. After they get to Texas, Sadie wants to go home. She thinks that her and her family will eventually drive home when the dry season is over, but she starts to think that that’s not going to happen for a long time. Will Sadie ever go back home? Will she ever see Wilma again? Is Dollie going to soon be a big part of Sadie’s life? This is a great book that I would recommend to someone who enjoys historical fiction books.

All said, I would probably give this book a 3.75 - why does Good Reads not have half or quarter star ratings??? This is a book written for tween/young teenage readers about a young girl facing hardship through The Depression. It was easy reading,had a good moral, and overall was pretty good.

This was a fantastic book about a family during the great depression, and how one girl deals with her families struggles. I was very impressed with the author. I would give it 5 stars but I have to save that for some books. :)

I passed this one on to my daughters who raved about it also. A must read.

What a good book. Makes me greatful for all the things that I have. The only part of the book that might be a little mature for young adults, is when Sadies mom gives birth. Otherwise good book for kids to understand about the depression, friendship and being greatful for what you have.

Hale, M. (2004). The truth about sparrows. New York, New York: Henry Holt.

Sadie is a twelve-year-old who is forced to leave her beloved home in Missouri to a shack-style house in Texas with her family, due to the Great Depression that happened in the 1930’s. She made a promise to her best friend Wilma to never forget each other. Sadie took to that promise very strong, not letting anyone else take Wilma’s spot as her best friend, even though her neighbor Dollie was a very loyal friend. She is forced to realize that although she had to leave her life behind in Missouri, she is still lucky to have a family and good friends. The strengths of this story are that this is a very intriguing story. In addition, Sadie’s story was very relatable, even though the setting was before many readers were born. A lot of her issues are ones that children can relate to: bullies, best friends, saying the wrong thing, etc. One weakness that was evident in this story was that some of the parts in the book her hard to believe, such as when Sadie had to deliver her mom’s baby, or when her sister’s lung problem disappeared without any explanation as to why. Other than those minor weaknesses, this would be an overall great story to include in a classroom lesson. This would be an excellent story for students to popcorn read. At the end of the story, students could make a who, what, where, when, why matrix for the story to explain the importance of this novel.

I found this book in a little free library when I was on a walk with my dog. Always curious about books, I opened it and read the first page. It was then that I decided I should borrow this book and read it! One, I think it sort of reminded me of Laura from Little House on the Prairie. Two, it was about a girl who had just turned 12 in 1933, and it started out talking about the day they left Missouri and how her mama said there would be no cake for her birthday this year. My dad was born in 1940 in Missouri, so I was interested in what the story would be about. By the end of the first chapter, I knew I would stick with Sadie through the rest of her journey she would
Share via this book. She had me at “and all I could think about was how you can’t start a new life without the old one dying first.” I myself have “started a new life” before, and I believed her to be right!
Sadie learns a lot about herself in this book. At one point she is ashamed of herself and comes to understand, “I couldn’t change yesterday, but I’d done my best to make today better.”
I am learning things about myself too. Evidently I love quotes and keepers that talk about sunshine. Here’s one from this book. “Mama and Daddy beamed their smiles at me. It felt like sunshine, and I soaked it up.” I am thinking probably most kids, and even grownups like me, would feel this same way if their parents beamed their smiles toward them!

The story was just telling it like it was and not trying to prove a point, yet it definitely had some life lessons you could learn or remember, if you’re kinda old and already know them, by reading it. This story contains hardships of life, how to get along with friends and family, discovery of new things about life and yourself, what can happen when you make the wrong choice, and that sometimes even when you make the right choice things might not end up how you would hope or how you’ve planned. This book reminds me of lovely lessons like using what you have and being content, and being hard-working to make things better and yet always remembering to share. I liked it, and the title really works, so that’s fun too!

The Truth About Sparrows is a very good book. It is about a 12 year old girl named Sadie. The book takes place during the Great Depression. She and her family have to leave their home in Missouri because of the great dust bowl. They move to Texas where they start their new life. Sadie misses her best friend Wilma and her old life in Missouri. She becomes friends with a girl named Dollie, but she unappreciated her. This jeopardizes their friendship. Sadie is also upset that the people in Texas are sometimes rude to her disabled father. Due to the effects of the depression the children in town have to work at the local cannery to make extra money. Sadie wishes that her family never left Missouri.

The Truth About Sparrows by Marian Hale was a very good book. This book described the hardships of the Great Depression accurately through the eyes of a young girl. This book was educational but it was also a very entertaining read. It included facts about the Great Depression while still managing to make the book interesting and no just a boatload of facts. The characters such as Sadie and her family were easy to understand and become attached to. Sadie suffers losing her best friend, relocating and having to get used to new people and a new life with less comforts. This book was one that I really enjoyed reading and I couldn't put it down most of the time. Marian Hale makes her characters seem real and throughout the story, you watch them grow and change. This book made it easy to understand what the Great Depression did to families and individuals. The book has a good plot that's ever-changing, keeping you interested throughout the whole book.

This book was so good I couldn’t put it down!

A middle-grade historical fiction novel about the Great Depression, with an unusual setting. The family in this story decides to head south from Missouri to the Gulf Coast to escape drought conditions in 1933. It’s a coming-of-age tale; the young protagonist Sadie has to deal with a big move to a place completely different from her previous home, new people, new school, new everything! But as a result of some very surprising twists, Sadie learns that new and different isn’t always so terrible.
A book that anyone who has ever been “the new kid in town” will well relate to.
Thanks, Marian Hale! Another one of your works goes on my “Best of 2022” list!

A keeper to share.