This novel is bound for glory! Book clubs from coast to coast will be reading this new novel from writer Tayari Jones. From the first explosive sentence, the book grabs the reader up, shakes him/her awake and doesn't let go. "My father James Witherspoon is a bigamist" begins the book. From that short sentence so much emotion can be measured.
Readers will love Dana Lynn Yarboro and feel compassion--if not pity--for her mother Gwendolyn. The cheating husband/bigamist James Witherspoon does not evoke compassion or even pity. When Dana finds herself face to face with her half-sister Chaurisse, she feels compelled to find out more about her life with HER father (of course, he is Dana's father, too).
According to Dana, bigamy was just a way of life in the 1980s in Atlanta. Many men had their family they went home to every night and maybe a family on the side that they went to see once or twice a month. The other women in these relationships get the short end of the stick; they waited for their "husbands" to show up; their children rarely spent time with their "fathers." The "real" wives got the man most of the time and always on holidays and family celebrations.
Full of life, love, and passion, Silver Sparrow will win the hearts of readers.
Highly recommended for high school and adult readers. I would not recommend this novel for anyone younger than ninth grade. It should have broad appeal with older girls. Mature content; some sex.
Recommended by Pamela Thompson, MLIS, Library Media Specialist
visit her ya novels blog at https://booksbypamelathompson.blogspot.com/
*now a featured blog on the Texas Library Association's homepage at https://www.txla.org/TLA-blog
