Sparrow, Always: a guest post by Gail Donovan

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It comes as no surprise Maine is a pretty literary place. We punch far above our weight in sheer numbers,  considering there's just a tad over a million people here. (Of course, Stephen King counts for 57 writers in any other state.)

You might be more surprised to find there are four published authors in my church alone. (Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Portland, Maine, guests and visitors welcome!) One of them is my friend Gail Donovan. She writes middle-grade fiction, loosely defined as reading for kid aged 7-12. 

 

 

Gail has won or been nominated for a boatload of awards and 'best of' picks, and I used to encourage her to branch out from her stand alone novels into a series. "Everyone likes series!" I would say over tea at her comfortable and colorful home. "Just look at me!" But she never found the right character to keep bringing back on stage, as it were, until Sparrow Robinson, who "loves to dance and leap around. She loves cats. She has a million questions about the world, and she’s not afraid to ask them." Sparrow also loves animals, helping find homes for a neighbor's cats in SPARROW BEING SPARROW, rescuing an injured bird in SPARROW SPREADS HER WINGS and, in the upcoming SPARROW, ALWAYS (this November!) getting involved with a service dog-in-training. 

 

I know Gail well, and I know she hasn't personally been involved with any guide dogs (although she does have an adorable granddog who looks like Laika the Space Dog.) So I asked her what was the inspiration for SPARROW, ALWAYS?

 

 

 

This will be embarrassing, but here goes. I was young. The book was Light A Single Candle by Beverly Butler, and the character was a girl named Trudy, who loses her sight and then receives a guide dog. A guide dog! I was so transported by the story I wished that that would happen to me! I spent hours wandering the streets of my suburban Connecticut neighborhood, picturing a dog leading the way.

 

I know better now than to wish that I needed a guide dog, yet I am still in awe of both the power of writing and the deep imaginative leaps that a reader is willing to take. And I still have a deep reverence for guide dogs. So does my character Sparrow, of whom a school librarian said, “Everyone loves a spunky heroine!” 

 

See what happens when Sparrow—spunky, nine going on ten years old, and passionate about animals of all kinds—finds herself living next door to a guide dog puppy raiser, determined to do everything she can to help the puppy pass his test.  

 

Would you like a complimentary copy of Sparrow, Always? Share your story of a book that carried you away— the more embarrassing the better. I’ll pick a winner at random.

 

Sparrow, Always, the third book in a series featuring Sparrow Robinson, will be released by Simon & Schuster this November. You can pre-order here. The first two books are Sparrow Being Sparrow (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and Sparrow Spreads Her Wings (winner of the Maine Literary Award for Young People’s Literature).

Carried Away with the Ice Cream Scoop by Gail Donovan

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I've always been amazed by my friend Gail Donovan; not because she's a terrific author - I have lots of friends who are terrific authors - but because she writes for kids between second and fifth grade. I don't recall being that age, and I don't particularly want to recall my kids being those ages (it seemed like an endless stream of wrinkled school work and birthday parties.)

How do you write from the viewpoints of little kids? I've asked her.  Today, she explains how: by tapping into her own life. And she's brought a special treat - she's giving away three Advance Reader Copies of Sparrow Being Sparrow! All you need to do is leave a comment sharing a moment from your first job.

 

My daughter came home from her first job working the concession stand at a minor league baseball stadium—hot, smelly work done in very close quarters—and complained, “I am literally breathing air that was in someone else’s mouth ten seconds ago.”

Little did I know that in a few years, that would be a valid complaint. But this was 2013, pre-pandemic, so I just said, “Your first job isn’t supposed to be your dream job. You’re learning the value of a dollar, and why you should go to college.”

I don’t know why I thought I had anything to teach my kids about the value of a dollar. I had always dreamed of being a writer, and though my father didn’t discourage this he counseled, “have a trade you can fall back on.” Reflecting on this wisdom, I set off for art school to learn how to be a potter. Feel free to laugh.

My first job, like my daughter’s, had been in the food services industry. Friendly’s. Picture late ’70s suburban Connecticut, blue-and-white polyester houndstooth uniforms. I waited tables, washed dishes, and took turns on “the make,” where ice cream sundaes were concocted and cones were scooped. I was soon warned that I was cutting into profits by making the cones and sundaes too big, and after repeated warnings was told, “Donovan, you’re off the make.”

Now you know that the first line of my book jacket bio, “Gail Donovan was fired from her first job for making the sundaes too big” is, in the words of David Sedaris, “true-ish.” I wasn’t fired fired, but I was forbidden to pick up a Friendly’s ice cream scoop. My editor liked the line, though, saying it sounded like Sparrow, the main character of my new book. And it does.

Sparrow is a lively, compassionate kid who would definitely make you an oversized sundae if she could. And when the neighborhood cat lady falls and breaks her hip and her seven cats need homes, who’s on the job? Sparrow. That’s just Sparrow Being Sparrow.  

               

Sparrow Being Sparrow

Ages 7-11

Sparrow loves to dance and leap around. She loves cats. She has a million questions about the world, and she’s not afraid to ask them. But she’s just moved to a new town and a new school, and her busy parents have no time for her to get “carried away.” Suddenly, she feels totally out of place.

Sparrow’s favorite thing in all this newness is her neighbor, Mrs. LaRose, who has seven cats and always has cookies and lemonade to share. But after Mrs. LaRose falls and breaks her hip, she decides to move into assisted living—where the cats aren’t allowed! Sparrow has to help.

Determined to find new homes for all of Mrs. LaRose’s cats, Sparrow forgets about her own troubles—but the cats just might be the key to Sparrow finding a home for herself in this town, too.

 

Gail Donovan was fired from her first job in an ice cream shop for making the sundaes too big. She now works in a library and writes middle grade novels, including Sparrow Being Sparrow, the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award winner Finchosaurus, and In Memory of Gorfman T. Frog, named to the New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing list. She has also written for the Rainbow Fish & Friends picture book series based on the bestselling work of Marcus Pfister. Donovan lives on the coast of Maine, where she jumps in the ocean all year round. She has shared her home with a dozen birds, a few dogs, a rat, and a cat named Cookie. Visit her at GailDonovan.com.

Writing By Fridge Light: a guest blog by Gail Donovan

One lucky commentor will win a copy of Gail Donovan's new middle-grade novel, Finchosaurus!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It's that time of year, and you need a Christmas gift or Hanukkah present for your child/grandkid/nephew/bff's sweet girl. I'm here to steer you right, by pointing you toward Gail Donovan's books. Gail is the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of In Memory of Gorfman T. Frog, What's Bugging Bailey Blecker, The Waffler, and her latest, Finchosaurus.

Gail writes for middle grade readers, that sometimes hard-to-please group between 7 and 12. I can personally attest to her powers, as she was one of Youngest's favorite authors when she was in that are range. However, Gail shares something in common with those of us who write for tiny tots, teens, or adults - finding The Idea; the one good enough to stake an entire book on.

With my newest middle-grade novel, Finchosaurus, just published, it’s time for me to start something new. Way past time. Unfortunately, I’m not the sort of writer with more ideas than I have time to execute. If you’re one of those people, I hate you. Just kidding. But I am jealous. Because my idea-creation mode is more the “pulling teeth” variety. 

That’s why I wasn’t about to let an idea escape, one recent night. I’d been trying to come up with a new character, but she wasn’t fully formed. So I set myself the task of thinking about her while I slept, hoping my nighttime brain could do what my daytime brain hadn’t. Hoping I would wake in the morning with an idea.

I woke up only a couple of hours later. Maybe the cat was making her weird “let me out” noises. But for whatever reason, I was awake, and I did have an idea. Good, I thought, I’ll write that down in the morning, and I drifted back to sleep.

I woke again. Same idea, with another twist. That could work, I thought, and went back to sleep. 

For the third time, I woke up. My brain: Do Not Forget. There’s the girl, there’s the twist. Me: Yes, I promise I’ll remember. Back to sleep, but not for long. Soon I was awake for the fourth time, knowing there was no way out: I had given my brain a job and my brain had done the job. Now it wouldn’t let me go back to sleep. Resigned, I got out of bed. Unfortunately, I seemed to have shed my pajamas during the night. I was stark naked.

I wanted to get the idea down on paper. I did not want to wake up any more than I had to by doing things like getting dressed, or turning on the lights, especially because the blinds were up, and we live in the city. 

That’s how I came to find myself crouching on the kitchen floor, scribbling notes by the light of the open fridge door. Writing just enough to convince my brain that it could let me sleep now. I don’t know if this idea will turn into a book, but I hope so. Because this character has persistence! She woke me up four times to say, Write about me! So, I’ll try. After all, it’s not every day—or night—I get an idea.

About Finchosaurus:

 Finch has trouble paying attention in school. He’s just too busy dreaming about uncovering a dinosaur fossil and naming a new species after himself—until he digs up a note in his fifth-grade class garden with the word HELP on it. He is determined to come to the aid of the mystery note-writer. But when the quest turns out to be harder than expected, Finch risks losing two things really important to him —his best friend Noah, and a field trip to Dinosaur State Park. Acclaimed author Gail Donovan gets inside the hearts and minds of fifth graders on this journey told with unexpected humor and impressive insight.

Gail Donovan is the author of middle-grade novels, including the recent release Finchosaurus and In Memory of Gorfman T. Frog, named to the New York Public Library 100 Books for Reading and Sharing list. She is also an author for the Rainbow Fish & Friends picture book series based on the bestselling books of Marcus Pfister. She is a Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award finalist and a PEN/New England Discovery. Donovan lives on the coast of Maine with her husband and two daughters, where, in addition to writing children’s books, she is a library assistant at the Portland Public Library.