young adult

Silhouette of a Sparrow

A first novel for young adults that wonderfully evokes the historical period of the 1920s, a love of birding, and a girl’s coming-of-age and sexual awareness.

I was born blue. Life ripped me early from my safe place and thrust me into the world. It was all so astonishing that I forgot to breathe. . . . My mother gave me life that day, but I was the one who decided to take it. I claimed it for myself.

So begins the story of Garnet Richardson. A robin singing on the windowsill helped revive her at birth, so the tale is told, and from that moment on, Garnet has had a special relationship to birds. But by the age of twelve, she replaces tree-climbing and exploring birds’ nests with cutting silhouettes and needlepoint, at the insistence of her mother.  That all changes when Garnet is allowed to spend the summer with well-to-do relatives in the 1926 Minnesota vacation spot of Excelsior, where a new amusement park has recently been built and a large dance hall beckons, both to the dismay of Garnet’s summer guardian, Mrs. Harrington.

Mrs. Harrington and her daughter, Hannah, are not to be her vacation companions, however. Garnet soon convinces her elders that a summer job is the right activity for a girl of sixteen. One first taste of freedom leads to others, back to the pleasures of nature, and eventually to the pleasures of the company of another young woman, Isabella. Though her beau, Teddy, waits for Garnet’s return and their expected engagement, Garnet discovers a love unlike anything she’s experienced before, but with a girl, “a harlot” as Hannah calls her. Garnet must decide the course her life will take, despite her parents’ wishes, despite the prevailing norms.

Winner of the Milkweed Prize for Children’s Literature
Winner of the 2013 Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers
ALA Rainbow List recommended book
Amelia Bloomer Project List recommended book
LAMBDA Literary Award finalist
Minnesota Book Award finalist

Kirkus Reviews

This slim tale is a positive breath of fresh air in a market bloated with opportunistic dystopian and paranormal romances.

read full review

Publishers Weekly

“Griffin’s first novel for teens is laced with evocative period details that give readers a taste of what it was like to come of age during the flapper era.”

read full review

Minneapolis StarTribune

Garnet’s feminist and environmental concerns are relevant for a young contemporary audience without feeling anachronistic to the narrative.

read full review

Published by Milkweed Editions
August 6, 2013
paperback  |  pages: 206
genre: young adult
ISBN  978-1-57131-701-8

Silhouette of a Sparrow

A first novel for young adults that wonderfully evokes the historical period of the 1920s, a love of birding, and a girl’s coming-of-age and sexual awareness.

I was born blue. Life ripped me early from my safe place and thrust me into the world. It was all so astonishing that I forgot to breathe. . . . My mother gave me life that day, but I was the one who decided to take it. I claimed it for myself.

So begins the story of Garnet Richardson. A robin singing on the windowsill helped revive her at birth, so the tale is told, and from that moment on, Garnet has had a special relationship to birds. But by the age of twelve, she replaces tree-climbing and exploring birds’ nests with cutting silhouettes and needlepoint, at the insistence of her mother.  That all changes when Garnet is allowed to spend the summer with well-to-do relatives in the 1926 Minnesota vacation spot of Excelsior, where a new amusement park has recently been built and a large dance hall beckons, both to the dismay of Garnet’s summer guardian, Mrs. Harrington.

Mrs. Harrington and her daughter, Hannah, are not to be her vacation companions, however. Garnet soon convinces her elders that a summer job is the right activity for a girl of sixteen. One first taste of freedom leads to others, back to the pleasures of nature, and eventually to the pleasures of the company of another young woman, Isabella. Though her beau, Teddy, waits for Garnet’s return and their expected engagement, Garnet discovers a love unlike anything she’s experienced before, but with a girl, “a harlot” as Hannah calls her. Garnet must decide the course her life will take, despite her parents’ wishes, despite the prevailing norms.

Winner of the Milkweed Prize for Children’s Literature

Winner of the 2013 Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers

ALA Rainbow List recommended book

Amelia Bloomer Project List recommended book

LAMBDA Literary Award finalist

Minnesota Book Award finalist

Kirkus Reviews

This slim tale is a positive breath of fresh air in a market bloated with opportunistic dystopian and paranormal romances.

read full review

Publishers Weekly

“Griffin’s first novel for teens is laced with evocative period details that give readers a taste of what it was like to come of age during the flapper era.”

read full review

Minneapolis StarTribune

Garnet’s feminist and environmental concerns are relevant for a young contemporary audience without feeling anachronistic to the narrative.

read full review