Will Sparrow's Road
3.5/5
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About this ebook
In his thirteenth year, Will Sparrow, liar and thief, becomes a runaway. On the road, he encounters a series of con artists—a pickpocket, a tooth puller, a pig trainer, a conjurer—and learns that others are more adept than he at lying and thieving. Then he reluctantly joins a traveling troupe of "oddities," including a dwarf and a cat-faced girl, holding himself apart from the "monsters" and resolving to be on guard against further deceptions. At last Will is forced to understand that appearances are misleading and that he has been his own worst deceiver. The rowdy world of market fairs in Elizabethan England is the colorful backdrop for Newbery medalist Cushman's new comic masterpiece.
This ebook includes a sample chapter of THE MIDWIFE'S APPRENTICE.
Karen Cushman
Karen Cushman's acclaimed historical novels include Catherine, Called Birdy, a Newbery Honor winner, and The Midwife's Apprentice, which received the Newbery Medal. She lives on Vashon Island in Washington State. Visit her online at karencushman.com and on Twitter @cushmanbooks.
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Reviews for Will Sparrow's Road
28 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Historically interesting but just not my jam.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Will Sparrow's father sold him to an innkeeper in return for ale. When the innkeeper catches Will stealing a meat pie, he threatens to send Will to London to be a chimney sweep's boy. Preferring the dangers of the open road to the dangers and drudgery of cleaning chimneys, Will runs away. After a few days of running and hiding, Will falls in with the itinerant crowd of performers, artisans, and hucksters who travel from one fair to the next. It's a colorful ensemble, and though Will prides himself on being a liar and a thief, he is more than once taken in by some sly character. Eventually, he reluctantly takes a place as an errand boy for the owner of a booth featuring "prodigies and oddities," including a three-legged chicken, a mermaid in a jar, a bad-tempered dwarf, and a fur-faced girl a few years younger than Will. As Will gets to know the members of the small company, he learns to look beyond appearances and see things, and people, as they truly are. And, despite his oft-repeated claim that he cares for no one but himself, he finds that there are other people in the world for whom he cares, and who care for him.Cushman walks a fine line with Will's character: he is indeed a bit of a liar and a thief, as well as conceited, somewhat ignorant, and occasionally naive -- but for all that, he remains likeable and sympathetic. The secondary characters are likewise complex and rounded; the reader gets the sense that each one features as the star of their own story, though some of those stories overlap onto Will's only briefly. At times, I suspected that the narrative was leading to a saccharine and unrealistic ending, but Cushman is too talented an author to fall into that trap. As for the audiobook production, it was excellent -- as in other projects, Kellgren researched the songs that are included in the text, and her performance of them was authentic to both the period and the characters. Highly recommended!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another hit from narrator Katherine Kellgren. She brings this audiobook to life and greatly contributed to my enjoyment of the story. Of particular delight to me is Ms. Kellgren's singing throughout the book (even when she's portraying some of the more tone-deaf characters) because I think singing the songs helps bring the time period to life in a way that reading the lyrics does not. The audiobook is fully voiced, expertly as you'd expect from this seasoned reader. I'd recommend this tale to fans of Karen Cushman's previous historical novels or anyone interested in Renaissance England.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A lively, colorful adventure with lots of wonderful characters set in Elizabethan England.