Maria’s father was murdered by government soldiers in El Salvador. Maria, her widowed, pregnant sister and her fragile little brother flee the country. By boat, plane, train? NO. Nailed into a crate in the back of a truck. They cross the Mexico border and then go north to Chicago. They struggle to find work--cleaning, sewing, washing dishes--always careful to remain "invisible," so that the authorities won't arrest them as illegal aliens and send them back. But the news comes that her baby sister is in danger. Maria must make the journey back down south from Chicago to save her baby sister and smuggle her across the border.

When Maria's home in Mexico is invaded by "guardias" and her father and brother-in-law are killed, she is forced to take her pregnant older sister and older brother across the border and into America to find a new life. Journey of the Sparrows is a contemporary book told from a first-persons point of view that reveal's themes of family relationships and just how far a young girl will go to provide for her family. When Maria's home country is no longer a safe place for her and her family, she moves to America and is able to flee the oppression she was facing. I really enjoyed reading this book. I realized many of the problems of immigration which changed my view on the subject. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read that will leave an impression.

Had to read it for school.

I loved this book! A very easy read!

I think this book had a decent premise and filled a gap in my classroom library (Salvadorean students). That being said, I didn't find the book's language to be particularly friendly to ELL students (lots of long, drawn-out descriptions) and with reference to the Guardias it might be a bit outdated for today's students. This book works if you have a need for it but otherwise is not a necessary classroom add.

On the suggested summer reading list for students.

I thought it was a really amazing book. In 7th grade, I even wrote an essay on journey of the sparrows.

I decided to read this novel when I was the summaries of the back of the books in the library. While I was reading one of my classmates came up and told me that it was a very good book and that I'd like it, so I decided to read it. The novel is about a hispanic family who crosses the border into the United States. They face challenges throughout the way with jobs, food and money, forcing them to fight for everything they can get. To me this plot was very interesting and it dragged my attention toward every single plot change that happened during the novel. I would recommend this book to anyone 14 and older, and to people who like to read about travel and journeys.

loved it!
got at dia de los ninos/dia de los libros

Journey of the Sparrow by: Fran Leeper Buss with the assistance of Daisy Cubias
Is a girl called Maria that has 1 sister called julia and their uncles that has abusive parents (father, mother) that do slave slave work with their childrens and if they do not they slap them . She lives in India but she and their uncles and sister choose to go to the U.S being illegal immigrants needing to live there without police finding them. This book is good because it has a lot of plot twists like when she needs to leave India to the U.S being an illegal immigrant or when she needs to escape from the police.This book entertains me a lot and I think about how their life is going now.For who wants finds a book that you think that will be boring is not this book because you think that they will do one thing but they do another think because of this I like but I think to that is to mut dramatic that she only can go to another state instead going to another country being illegal immigrant, and I think that this book is to mute short that the writer can develop more the idea counting with more details so for Journey of Sparrow I give 4 stars

Maria is a teenager when she flees El Salvador, where—due to civil war—it is no longer safe for her family to live. But nothing, from the perilous journey over the border to finding work to ensuring that her younger brother doesn't starve like other siblings have, is easy.

I read this in grade six, and I retained only three bits of it then: a scene in which the narrator is nailed in a crate in the back of a truck and another child wets himself in fright; a vague impression of a crowded room with the Virgin Mary on the wall; and the fact that it was assigned reading for school, and we had to get permission slips signed—probably because there are references to sexual violence. I lost my permission slip, so my father wrote me a note saying that I had permission to read whatever I liked.

Those details have flitted in and out of my memory for years, so I'm glad to have finally found it again to make the rest of it more concrete. The things that stand out now are 1) the importance of the Virgin Mary in the book, and in Maria's life, and 2) how little things have changed for so many refugees. This translates incredibly well to the present day, even accounting for things like changes in technology—if Maria were a fifteen-year-old in 2023 trying to, say, escape poverty and starvation in Venezuela, she might have a cell phone, but she'd still likely face racism and violence and a struggle to survive in the brittle cold of Chicago.

Some things—not all—are looking up for Maria by the end of the book, and I appreciate the refusal to make this a rosy story with an unrealistically happy ending for all. Instead there's hope for better things in the future, but still a long way to go. I hope this is still being taught in middle school classrooms.

It was a really great way to give readers insight into the lives of others not as fortunate as us. It shows very diverse viewpoints on situations I could never imagine bein in.