The Sparrow Found a House by Jason McIntire: Book Review

The Sparrow Found a House

by Jason McIntire

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Third person; Omnipresent

Fiction

205 Pages

About the Book

Back cover Blurb

What if your new stepdad was a Bible-toting Army Sergeant?
Fifteen-year-old Jessie Rivera is living every teenager’s nightmare. Her widowed mom has married a man who wears his heavy Christian values like his sergeant’s stripes – on both sleeves.
Glenn Sparrow is persistent, immovable, and not afraid to be firm. Worse than that, he’s loving, kind – even fun – and he has Chris, Moe, and Katie completely won over.
But Jessie is determined that she won’t be won over, or give up her “freedom” without a fight. She knows what she wants, and it isn’t what they’ve got.
Or is it?

Why I Choose this Book

Jason McIntire, the author of The Sparrow Found a House, contacted me back in June of 2014 asking me if I wanted to be a part of the book launch. At that time it didn’t work for me to do a book review, but I did host him on Noveltea. Then, earlier this year I read and review ed Flight School, the second book in the Sparrow Stories series. Ever since then I’ve wanted to go back and read The Sparrow Found a House (referred to from now on as TSFAH).

What I Thought about this Book

I’m not sure if it’s because I already “knew” these characters, but I enjoyed TSFAH a lot more than Flight School. The main character in this book is fifteen-year-old Jessie, although she shares stage time with her three siblings, Mom and new step-dad. It was easy to see that Jessie is conflicted by the changes going on in her family. She loves her mom and of course has a bond with her siblings, therefore she wants life to run smoothly for them but she can’t stand her new step-dad. I could feel her struggle and although I didn’t personally connect with her very much, I thought she was well-written and that a lot of people would be able to connect with her.

A little list of things I especially enjoyed in TSFAH:

1. The Creation Museum gets about a ten second appearance in the book which was cool

2. The parents are willing to apologize when they’ve done something wrong

3. Ben. He was a cool friend for them to have

4. Each one of the characters were their own person and had their own personalities

5. The fact that Jessie didn’t change all of a sudden

6. Camping. Of course camping. How could I not like camping?

Conclusion

TSFAH reminded me quite a bit to A Song for Your Honor, which is a true, modern-day story involving a homeschooling window and her struggles with the grandparents not agreeing with the conservative way she was raising her family. (I don’t agree with everything in A Song for Your Honor and there are times the story drags, but over all it is very encouraging – especially in the arena of forgiveness. I highly recommend it.) I actually really enjoyed the parallels between the two books and wondered at times if they were done on purpose or not.

I didn’t find a huge a mount of stuff that I disagreed with in TSFAH and I thought almost all of the “teachable” moments were done tastefully and were not overbearing which is a hard trick to master.

This book made me want to re-read Flight School and pick up on what elements of the story I might have missed my first time reading it.

Rating

I’m giving The Sparrow Found a House Four Stars and recommend it to kids and teenagers who want an interesting, God-focused read that will encourage them in their Christian faith.

About the Author

A 2005 homeschool graduate and partner in family business ventures, Jason McIntire writes as a hobby. His Christian stories are built around solidly biblical ideas, but packaged in his own light-hearted, often humorous style. (See their website here.)