The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper

The only problem: she wants nothing to do with her talent. Fifteen-year-old Sparrow Delaney is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and therefore highly gifted in the psychic arts. Harper's ( Boitano's Edge) polished debut novel couches an unexpectedly poignant meditation on loss in a quick-moving plot about ghosts and the spiritual mediums who communicate with them. A wistful subplot about Sparrow's missing father stays hauntingly unresolved. The intriguing premise is developed into a well-plotted story featuring a range of intriguing characters, only some of whom are flesh and blood. It won't take readers too long to realize that the sullen (but handsome!) boy she's paired on a project with is Luke's brother, who vehemently denies ghosts and fervently believes his brother is alive.

But he life plan to eschew the psychic limelight begins to unravel when Luke, a teenage ghost, appears to insist she help him resolve issues that are keeping him from reaching the other side. Nor has she mentioned to her family that she has been talking to spirit guides and seeing ghosts since she was five. Because this boy is a dead one-a persistent, charming, infuriating ghost, who won't let her be until she agrees to help him Move On.As the seventh daughter of a psychic, great tings are expected of Sparrow, but she wants none of it, going so far as to begin her freshman year at a new high school, a bus ride away from Lily Dale, a real-life New York town centered on spiritualism. But when another boy catches her eye, all Sparrow's dreams of being ordinary go up in smoke. She makes a new best friend and meets an irritatingly appealing guy in her history class. If she sticks to her rules and doesn't let anyone know that she can do all those things-everywhere, all the time-Sparrow just might pass as a normal tenth grader at her new high school. She does not want to see, hear, smell, or talk to ghosts. Sparrow Delaney absolutely, positively does not want to be a medium like her six older sisters, her mother, and her grandmother.

But with three ghosts regularly haunting her, Sparrow must face her destiny-and 10th grade-head on. About the Book Sparrow Delaney is the most talented psychic in a family of skilled mediums, but she absolutely refuses to let her so-called gift keep her from being normal.

The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper