Molly Beth Griffin

Lily and Gram pack up Gram's car and drive across Iowa to her house. Lily is feeling sad and queasy, so Gram suggests they look for ten beautiful things before they reach their destination. Together, they find them: a sunrise, a wind farm, the sound of a creek, the smell of mud, a calf running along a fence, a mighty thunderstorm. The beauty fills up some of Lily's empty places - readers may infer that Lily is living with Gram now because of the death/absence of one or both of her parents, show more but the text leaves it open to interpretation. A gentle story about grief, moving, family, and finding beauty in the world. show less

I borrowed this book from the library, but I think I would like to own a copy. It was published in 2012, but took until just this past week to come to my attention, and I am sad for that. It should be better known and a staple of lists of f/f stories.

Silhouette of a Sparrow is mellow and contemplative, but bright and warm. The summer lakeside setting infuses the narrative voice: even though it isn't really a slow-paced story at all, it feels to me like a quiet, relaxing day, toasting gently show more in the sun as the water laps at the shore and birds call overhead. The story isn't entirely sweetness and light, as my description of the narrative might suggest. It takes place in a wealthy, white lake resort in 1926 and the story doesn't pretend that the people populating that time and place weren't homophobic, or sexist, or racist, and it also deals with WW1 shellshock in Garnet's dad and the class differences between Garnet, from St Paul, and Isabella, a flapper originally from a poor farm family.

This is a book about Garnet choosing to make her own path in life, and how she discovers the options available to her. She is at Lake Minnetonka thanks to her father's cousin, a very wealthy woman, and her teenage daughter, who represent much of the old way of doing things. Hannah, the girl, isn't expected to do anything but marry and Mrs. Harrington, the cousin, has little truck with modern styles, much less female independence. When Garnet asks for permission to find a summer job (for pocket money, and a little bit of variety - the Harringtons are very boring), Mrs. Harrington only agrees because Garnet is merely middle class, and Mrs. H would prefer not to have her around. Garnet works for Miss Maple, an older woman who has chosen to never marry and instead manage her own hat shop, where Garnet meets Isabella, another woman who has struck off on her own. She is not much older than Garnet, but works as a dancer and dresses very stylishly with bobbed black hair, bright red lipstick, and dresses that show her knees and arms. Garnet yearns to be like Miss Maple and Isabella, but she feels obligation to her family to follow the traditional route Mrs. Harrington and Hannah represent, and to marry the boy she has been going with back home.

In the course of things, Garnet and Isabella strike up a summer romance, which is sweet and gentle, but by no means chaste. I really liked the way their friendship grew and how Garnet began to see possibilities open before her. They spend a lot of time in the more secluded areas outdoors, to avoid prying eyes (after all, Isabella is scandalous, and Garnet can't risk Mrs. H revoking permission to wander on her own), which leads to lovely descriptions of the lake and resort area. Garnet is a junior member of the Audubon Society, which adds a nice thematic touch as she describes the birds she sees and compares people to birds as well.

At less than 200 pages, this isn't a very long book - honestly, I feel like being cliché so I will: it's fleeting, like summer. Warm and joyful while it is here, but eventually it ends, and to make it longer would ruin what makes it so good. show less

I was utterly charmed from the first page of this historical novel. Set in the 1920's, it tells the story of Garnet Richards, a young woman who chafes at the strict rules her mother, and then her aunt lay out for her, ladylike pastimes, like embroidering for her hope chest, marriage after high school. When Garnet is sent away for the summer, to a lakeside resort with her even stricter aunt, she meets a flapper named Isabella.

I really loved the way this evolved, the descriptions of the show more setting, and of Garnet's cutouts of paper birds- transforming her passion for learning and science into something more ladylike... and the way her friendship, and relationship with Isabella evolve. I zoomed through it in one sitting. show less

A strange little slip of a book, SILHOUETTE OF A SPARROW has a lovely title and an even lovelier cover featuring an image of delicate paper cut-out art. Inside, true literature emerges, a welcome change in the Young Adult or Juvenile Fiction category. Instead of contemporary teens facing contemporary issues, author Molly Beth Griffin has created historical characters, placing them in the 1920s, and artfully confronting them with timeless problems.

Garnet is sixteen and has been sent to show more summer at a lakeside hotel with distant relatives while her mother remains at home trying to reunite with a husband and father who has returned, depressed and damaged, from WWI. Garnet's chaperone is a woman of distinctly Victorian ways, and she expects her own daughter as well as Garnet to follow her lead on how to be a lady. In direct contrast to the hotel and its guests, is a nearby amusement park and a dance hall. It is the 1920s and America is changing. Garnet sits on the front porch of the hotel doing needlework while yearning to venture next door to see what "real" life is all about.

Author Griffin has created an admirable protagonist in Garnet who is bright, ambitious, curious, observant, and holds a streak of adventure inside her. While working at a local hat shop, she meets Isabella, a slightly older teen working as a dancer at the infamous dance hall. Neither teen really fits in at the summer resort, and they bond - as friends and in a more intimate way. The author is to be commended for creating suspense in a short novel that is heavy on descriptions of nature and reminders of responsibility. But suspense there is as Garnet and Isabella pursue their close friendship out of sight of the odd chaperone sitting on the hotel porch.

Griffin has found a unique form in which to play her words. Each chapter is titled after a different kind of bird that would have been found in the Minnesota lake region during the 1920s. As the reader ponders Garnet's situation and waits for the story of Isabella and Garnet to play out, there is a great deal to be learned about birds. Also, Garnet's hobby of creating paper cutouts, a rather curious Victorian hobby, piques one's curiosity regarding that art form.

The author manages to cram a great deal of thought into one, slim volume. Environmental issues, issues of sexual preference, of women's rights, of race and class distinctions, of dysfunctional families, and the effects of war - all find their way into 189 pages. Both characters are written about in a respectful way despite the fact that each one is pursuing independence in a totally different fashion. Throughout, there is a distinct message of kindness - how important it is, how one should treat others, and the realization that in being too self-centered, one may neglect the concerns and problems of those closest to them. Author Griffin is very good at getting her messages across to her teen audience.

But is this book for teens? What defines Young Adult fiction these days? As an adult reader, it is difficult to predict how younger readers might react to this book. Might it be too slow moving, too bogged down in old-fashioned themes? It definitely falls into the category of literature rather than popular fiction, and while that is nice to see (and even better to read) one wonders how many teens are leaning toward literature these days. Older teens may find this novel way too tame, but it should find an audience with the 12-to-14-year-old crowd.

It is a lovely story. I wish SILHOUETTE OF A SPARROW had been around when I was twelve years old. show less