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School Library Journal
Reviewed on June 1, 2003
K-Gr 2 This pleasing blend of history and legend tells the story of a man who brought sparrows to America in the 1860s. John Bardsley loved these birds, though they were considered pests in England. He wound up in Philadelphia, where countless inchworms plagued the plants of the city. Bardsley journeyed back to his homeland and returned with a thousand sparrows that soon collected the worms for their hungry chicks. Gerstein's whimsical illustrations capture the spirited e...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Horn Book Magazine
Reviewed on March 1, 2003
"Gerstein tells the little-known story of how sparrows came to America," avers the jacket, but that's not precisely the case. Rather, he recasts it as a sort of legend: as a boy in England, John Bardsley develops an affection for sparrows after bonding with a fallen nestling. Thirty years later, in 1868, he's become a house painter in Philadelphia; when the city is infested with a plague of inchworms, he returns to his native land to fetch a thousand sparrows in hopes that they will eradicate the pests. Gers...Log In or Sign Up to Read More