Silhouette of a Sparrow (19 page)

MOLLY BETH GRIFFIN is a graduate of Hamline University’s MFA program in writing for children and a teacher at the Loft Literary Center. She is the author of a picture book,
Loon Baby. Silhouette of a Sparrow
is her first young adult novel. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.

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To order books or for more information, contact Milkweed
at (800) 520-6455
or visit our Web site (
www.milkweed.org
).

 

 

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Founded as a nonprofit organization in 1980, Milkweed Editions is an independent publisher. Our mission is to identify, nurture and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it.

 

 

In addition to revenue generated by the sales of books we publish, Milkweed Editions depends on the generosity of institutions and individuals like you. In an increasingly consolidated and bottom-line-driven publishing world, your support allows us to select and publish books on the basis of their literary quality and transformative potential. Please visit our Web site (
www.milkweed.org
) or contact us at (800) 520-6455 to learn more.

 

Milkweed Editions, a nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from Maurice and Sally Blanks; Emilie and Henry Buchwald; the Bush Foundation; the Patrick and Aimee Butler Foundation; Timothy and Tara Clark; Betsy and Edward Cussler; the Dougherty Family Foundation; Mary Lee Dayton; Julie B. DuBois; Joanne and John Gordon; Ellen Grace; William and Jeanne Grandy; John and Andrea Gulla; Elizabeth Driscoll Hlavka and Edwin Hlavka; the Jerome Foundation; the Lerner Foundation; the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation; Sanders and Tasha Marvin; Robert E. and Vivian McDonald; the McKnight Foundation; Mid-Continent Engineering; the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts; Christine and John L. Morrison; Kelly Morrison and John Willoughby; the National Endowment for the Arts; Ann and Doug Ness; Jörg and Angie Pierach; the RBC Foundation USA; Deborah Reynolds; Cheryl Ryland; Schele and Philip Smith; the Target Foundation; the Travelers Foundation; Moira Turner; and Edward and Jenny Wahl.

Interior design by Ann Sudmeier
Typeset in Weiss
by BookMobile Design and Publishing Services
Printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer waste paper
by Friesens Corporation

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

© 2012, Text by Molly Beth Griffin

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.

(800) 520-6455

 

Published 2012 by Milkweed Editions

Author photo by Kevin Obsatz

 

Manufactured in Canada in June 2012 by Friesens Corporation.

 

 

Please turn to the back of this book for a list of the sustaining funders of Milkweed Editions.

 

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Griffin, Molly Beth.

p. cm.

Summary: During the summer of 1926 in the lake resort town of Excelsior, Minnesota, sixteen-year-old Garnet, who dreams of indulging her passion for ornithology, is resigned to marrying a nice boy and settling into middle-class homemaking until she takes a liberating job in a hat shop and begins an intense, secret relationship with a daring and beautiful flapper.

eISBN : 978-1-571-31861-9

[1. Feminism—Fiction. 2. Self-actualization (Psychology)—Fiction. 3. Lesbians—Fiction. 4. Ornithology—Fiction. 5. Excelsior (Minn.)—History—20th century—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.G8813593Si 2012

[Fic]—dc23

2011036296

 

This book is printed on acid-free paper.