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When Sparrows Fall
Sometimes doing the right thing means risking it all.
When Susanna discovers her neighbor's dangerous secret, will she stand up for what she knows is right or save herself?
After her father is killed in a wagon accident on their way to Virginia, 13-year-old Susanna's world is further upended when her mother marries her father's bitter widowed brother. Thrust into a new tight-knit Mennonite community and new family, with a cousin-turned-stepsister who despises her, it seems as if Susanna's world can't get worse. As Susanna struggles to adjust, she becomes obsessed with the mysterious outcast next door, an older woman known in the community as Aunt Lydia. Her stepfather's edict not to step foot onto Aunt Lydia's property only fuels Susanna's curiosity.
Unable to sleep late one night, Susanna peers out her window and unwittingly discovers a dangerous secret. After she learns the truth about the nighttime visitors streaming through Aunt Lydia's barn, a crisis forces her to make a terrible choice: Turn her back on desperate people or destroy her family’s fragile new bonds and, like her neighbor, face shunning by the community?
Faced with an excruciating decision, will Susanna risk the lives of innocents or be forever branded an outcast?
When Susanna discovers her neighbor's dangerous secret, will she stand up for what she knows is right or save herself?
After her father is killed in a wagon accident on their way to Virginia, 13-year-old Susanna's world is further upended when her mother marries her father's bitter widowed brother. Thrust into a new tight-knit Mennonite community and new family, with a cousin-turned-stepsister who despises her, it seems as if Susanna's world can't get worse. As Susanna struggles to adjust, she becomes obsessed with the mysterious outcast next door, an older woman known in the community as Aunt Lydia. Her stepfather's edict not to step foot onto Aunt Lydia's property only fuels Susanna's curiosity.
Unable to sleep late one night, Susanna peers out her window and unwittingly discovers a dangerous secret. After she learns the truth about the nighttime visitors streaming through Aunt Lydia's barn, a crisis forces her to make a terrible choice: Turn her back on desperate people or destroy her family’s fragile new bonds and, like her neighbor, face shunning by the community?
Faced with an excruciating decision, will Susanna risk the lives of innocents or be forever branded an outcast?
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 9, 2015
10 people want to read
About the author
Diana Blackstone
2 books5 followersDiana has been a voracious reader since age nine when she discovered The Chronicles of Narnia after a librarian handed her the first book in the series. She credits hay fever for her interest in writing stories. Unable to play outside without misery from the age of ten, she spent half of every summer vacation inside reading and writing stories until the pollen count dwindled.
Diana served as a high school English teacher and academic support coordinator for nearly 30 years. She originally chose to teach older students because she thought they would be able to manage their own bodily fluids better than little kids would. She’s discovered she was mostly right about that, and as a bonus, she finds teenagers a blast to spend her days with.
When not writing, Diana spends her time teaching English to refugees, caring for her aging father, cooking for her family, and dragon boating. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and pets. Her two adult sons and a daughter-in-law live nearby and come home often for dinner.
Diana's middle grade novel WHEN SPARROWS FALL won the 2017 Cascade Award.
Diana served as a high school English teacher and academic support coordinator for nearly 30 years. She originally chose to teach older students because she thought they would be able to manage their own bodily fluids better than little kids would. She’s discovered she was mostly right about that, and as a bonus, she finds teenagers a blast to spend her days with.
When not writing, Diana spends her time teaching English to refugees, caring for her aging father, cooking for her family, and dragon boating. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and pets. Her two adult sons and a daughter-in-law live nearby and come home often for dinner.
Diana's middle grade novel WHEN SPARROWS FALL won the 2017 Cascade Award.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 11, 2015
Blackstone draws the readers into the world of pre-Civil War, Virginian Mennonites. Thirteen year-old Susanna Stutzman’s father was killed in a wagon accident while moving back to the family farm, and now her mother is married to Susanna’s bitter and abusive uncle through an arranged marriage. In a faith-centered community, Susanna (or ‘Sanna as her baby sister calls her) doubts God, “I used to feel so close to God when I lived in Pennsylvania. He must have stayed behind.” Over the year-span of the book, Susanna faces her doubts and wrestles with following cultural religion over doing the right that she knows God would want her to do.
My blood pressure (which I have to be watching since I’m pregnant) didn’t like the tension in When Sparrows Fall, but my reader-self loved it. Susanna works through the trauma of her father’s gruesome death, the anger of an abusive step-father and an unloving step-sister, and the curiosity of her forbidden neighbor’s midnight rendezvous. Because of Blackstone’s authentic writing style, I wasn’t sure if things would end happily or not - and I liked that. (And FYI, I’m a happy book reader. I can appreciate the beauty and artistry of tragic books, but they are not how I choose to spend my comfy reading days.)
When Sparrows Fall combines authentic faith-evaluation and a glimpse into Mennonite life while watching the tension of pre-Civil War morality seep into the Mennonite “in the world but not of it” culture. I want to tell you more about both the characters and the interesting way Blackstone weaves culture and events together, but I don’t want to ruin the mystery or suspense. :)
P.S. As an English teacher, I loved how Blackstone included discussion questions at the end of the book. Also, because When Sparrows Fall is set in a Mennonite community where some spoke in Pennsylvania Dutch, Blackstone included a glossary for the Pennsylvania Dutch words laced through the book.
My blood pressure (which I have to be watching since I’m pregnant) didn’t like the tension in When Sparrows Fall, but my reader-self loved it. Susanna works through the trauma of her father’s gruesome death, the anger of an abusive step-father and an unloving step-sister, and the curiosity of her forbidden neighbor’s midnight rendezvous. Because of Blackstone’s authentic writing style, I wasn’t sure if things would end happily or not - and I liked that. (And FYI, I’m a happy book reader. I can appreciate the beauty and artistry of tragic books, but they are not how I choose to spend my comfy reading days.)
When Sparrows Fall combines authentic faith-evaluation and a glimpse into Mennonite life while watching the tension of pre-Civil War morality seep into the Mennonite “in the world but not of it” culture. I want to tell you more about both the characters and the interesting way Blackstone weaves culture and events together, but I don’t want to ruin the mystery or suspense. :)
P.S. As an English teacher, I loved how Blackstone included discussion questions at the end of the book. Also, because When Sparrows Fall is set in a Mennonite community where some spoke in Pennsylvania Dutch, Blackstone included a glossary for the Pennsylvania Dutch words laced through the book.
July 7, 2015
What a wonderful book! I'm not good with "reviews" -- don't want to give the story away, but I will say it was very well written (especially for a freshman author). Once I started, I didn't want to put it down, and that doesn't happen very often for me. It's an "easy" read, and is formatted nicely so that my tired, old eyes were able to stay focused on the page. It's fast-paced, with just the right amount of description so the reader can "see" what's going on, without getting hung up with too many distracting details (like the book I'm currently trying to get through...why do writers think they have to over-tell their stories?). This book is not over-told.
It's a great story that deals with grief, coming-of-age, blended family life, Mennonite life, the Underground Railroad, redemption, and so much more, yet the story-line focus is tight. All these things are blended into one seamless story line, without leaving the reader wishing they had just a little more info.
It's written with a young adult audience in mind, but it's the type of story adults will thoroughly enjoy. There is nothing in the book that is inappropriate, but some of the subject may need to be explained to the very young.
I highly recommend this book. Well done, Diana Blackstone!
It's a great story that deals with grief, coming-of-age, blended family life, Mennonite life, the Underground Railroad, redemption, and so much more, yet the story-line focus is tight. All these things are blended into one seamless story line, without leaving the reader wishing they had just a little more info.
It's written with a young adult audience in mind, but it's the type of story adults will thoroughly enjoy. There is nothing in the book that is inappropriate, but some of the subject may need to be explained to the very young.
I highly recommend this book. Well done, Diana Blackstone!
August 1, 2015
I read this book while interning at Leap Books.
This was a great historical fiction for upper middle graders. There is a lot of history and much of it touches the underground railroad. Much of the story revolves around the family dynamics and how to work things out. With an abusive step-dad that lashes out in anger, there are some very serious moments in this story. It contains many lessons on how to deal forgive and help people (and yourself) be accountable for your actions.
This one is going to stick with you awhile once you're finished. Even a month later something about the story will click into place in my mind and I'll have to go re-visit the story again.
This was a great historical fiction for upper middle graders. There is a lot of history and much of it touches the underground railroad. Much of the story revolves around the family dynamics and how to work things out. With an abusive step-dad that lashes out in anger, there are some very serious moments in this story. It contains many lessons on how to deal forgive and help people (and yourself) be accountable for your actions.
This one is going to stick with you awhile once you're finished. Even a month later something about the story will click into place in my mind and I'll have to go re-visit the story again.
April 19, 2016
Nothing is going right for Susanna. Her father died, her mother married her abusive uncle, and her stepsister doesn’t seem to like her. Susanna becomes curious about nighttime visitors at her neighbor’s home…there are activities that point to the Underground Railroad. Set in a Mennonite community, this novel has numerous elements that will appeal to both young and older readers. There’s suspense, history, family, faith, and matters of the heart within the pages.
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May 23, 2016Easy interesting read about Mennonites during the underground railroad. Looking forward to Diana's next book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews