You're listening to Away With Words, this show about language and how we use it.

I'm Martha Barnett.

And I'm Grant Barrett.

Martha, my taste in fiction ranges widely, but I'm currently reading a lot of science

fiction that involves universe spanning space battles and aliens and artificial intelligence,

books by Neil Asher and John Scalzi.

But you know, the book that I've really enjoyed most this year is an episode of Sparrows

by Rumor Godden, and it's very different than space battles and aliens.

There are no spacecraft and all the mischief is on a much smaller scale.

I really like the title and episode of Sparrows.

Yeah, by Rumor Godden, and her first name is spelled R-U-M-E-R.

Published in 1955, the book centers mainly around the life of children on a small street

in post-war London.

It's largely seen through their eyes, and it's about their difficulties in that time

and in that place, and everything is filtered through their concerns.

There's a girl named Lovejoy who decides that she wants to start a garden and through

her successes and her failures in gardening and through the allies and friends that she

makes, the lives of the children and the adults in that area become transformed.

And this whole book is such a snapshot of a time and a place, and it's a sweet book,

and it's not sacriendo, and its victories are small ones, and they're the kind of wins

that I wouldn't call jackpots, but more like birthday money if that makes sense, you

know?

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