Sparrow by Sarah Moon

From Goodreads,

"Sparrow has always had a difficult time making friends. She would always rather have stayed home on the weekends with her mother, an affluent IT Executive at a Brooklyn bank, reading, or watching the birds, than playing with other kids. And that's made school a lonely experience for her. It's made LIFE a lonely experience.

But when the one teacher who really understood her -- Mrs. Wexler, the school librarian, a woman who let her eat her lunch in the library office rather than hide in a bathroom stall, a woman who shared her passion for novels and knew just the ones she'd love -- is killed in a freak car accident, Sparrow's world unravels and she's found on the roof of her school in an apparent suicide attempt.

With the help of an insightful therapist, Sparrow finally reveals the truth of her inner life. And it's here that she discovers an outlet in Rock & Roll music..."

Goodreads - Sparrow

I tend to find myself drawn to books with themes of mental illness.  I enjoy seeing the inner workings of the mind of someone with an illness.  When I read the summary for this book I felt like this book was a perfect fit for me.  After reading I now realize that this book wasn't centered around mental illness, but I loved it just the same.

Sparrow is about a girl who is assumed to be attempting suicide after being found standing on the roof of her school.  Sparrow soon learns that everything is not okay and that in itself is okay.  She starts going to a therapist and starts working toward healing things with her mom and more importantly with herself.  Sparrow also finds that she has a deep love for music, which allows for the opportunity to step outside her comfort zone and attend a rock camp for girls. 

This book was based on a misunderstanding.  Sparrow was found on the roof of her school and everyone thought she was attempting suicide.  However, Sparrow was trying to disconnect from the world and "fly away" with the birds.  After the entire misunderstanding, Sparrow has to go to counseling to work with a therapist.  I love that this book normalizes therapy.  There is such a stigma around going to a therapist.  This book made going to a therapist as normal as going to the grocery store.  On top of that, Sparrow doesn't have a mental illness.  She has social anxiety and doesn't know how to handle her emotions.  These are things that I have experienced myself.  This book made me want to have my own therapist to talk to weekly about the things going on in my life and to get help on managing my emotions and feelings. 

There were a few things that I didn't like about the book.  One was there was some choice language that felt unnecessary to the story itself.  Another was that the summer camp was a bit extreme.  It was a month-long summer camp.  I don't know anywhere that has a month-long sleepaway summer camp.  I also felt like they really went extreme on the characters at camp.  They were all over the top with their descriptions of shaved heads and tattoos.  Also, when the counselors were introduced they all used their preferred pronouns which felt like an added piece to say that the book had LGTBQ tolerance.  Again, it wasn't necessary to the story itself and it would have been better omitted.

Overall, this book was an excellent read and it had a lovely flow.  I loved Sparrow and her confusion about what was happening in her life and with friends.  I give this 4 stars and recommend it to people who want a good read about social anxiety and seeing a counselor.