Voyage of the Sparrowhawk

by Natasha Farrant

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In the aftermath of World War I, two orphaned friends set off in a narrowboat from England as each hopes to find a missing part of themselves in France.

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Wonderfully immersive into the setting and time period with courageous, resilient, smart children, who know when to ask for help, when to go it on their own, and how to be loyal friends. Includes a wonderful map of the voyage from Great Barton, through London, across the English Channel to Calais, France and beyond. (

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bookwren | Oct 18, 2021 |

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Awards

Costa Book Awards (Winner – Children's Book – 2020)

Great Stone Face Book Award (Nominee – 2023)

Independent Booksellers' Book Prize (Shortlist – Children's Fiction – 2021)

Spark! School Book Award (Shortlist – Age 9+ – 2021)

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing (Nominee – 2022)

Notable Lists

The Best Children's Books of the Year (2022)

Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth (2021)

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Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2020-07-14

People/Characters

Ben Langton

Charlotte (Lotti) St. Remy (Lotti)

Important places

Important events

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Epigraph

"I ought to say," explained Pooh as they walked down to the shore of the island, "that it isn't an ordinary sort of boat. Sometimes it's a Boat, and sometime it's more of an Accident. It all depends."

"Depends on what?"

"On whether I'm on the top of it or underneath it."

-A. A. Milne

As wonderful as dogs can be, they are famous for missing the point.

-Jean Ferris [Once Upon a Marigold]

Dedication

For Jane, Eleanor, Matilda and Julia.

In memory of Dobby, a most excellent Chihuahua.

First words

Prologue: Ben: Once, a long time ago, there was a boy called Ben.

Prologue: Lotti: About four years after Nathan adopted Sam and Ben, farther south near the small town of Great Barton, a man and a woman in a smart sports car paused at the gates of their country estate.

Chapter One: It was the first April since the war.

Quotations

They sat very still, hardly breathing, so that in the workshop the only sound was the puppies' mewling and the steady beat of rain on the roof, and Ben could feel it, something magic in the air like you get in very old chruches, or libraries, or empty houses which people have really loved. (p. 195)

"The poor trees ... " Lotti thought of the beech alley at Barton, the woods where the nightingale sang. The fate of the trees upset her more than anything. "They were just there. They didn't choose to go to war." (p. 216)

"It will be all right," said Lotti. "As long as ..."

"... we're together," said Ben.

They both wondered, as they drifted off to sleep, when they had started to finish each other's sentences. (p. 218)

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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In the aftermath of World War I, two orphaned friends set off in a narrowboat from England as each hopes to find a missing part of themselves in France.

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