{"id":13964,"date":"2014-08-29T00:21:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T04:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=13964"},"modified":"2014-08-29T00:21:23","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T04:21:23","slug":"jenny-offill-sparky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2014\/08\/29\/jenny-offill-sparky\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenny Offill: Sparky!<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year is just over half over, but already Jenny Offill is in the running for my favorite new novel of the year with her fantastic\u00a0Dept. of Speculation<\/em> (my review here<\/a>). Now, Dept. of Speculation<\/em> is ultimately hopeful, but it has a bitter quality to it. I\u00a0obviously loved it, but because of the melancholic tone I was a bit surprised to find that Jenny Offill also writes children’s books (not that I’m trying to equate the author with a novel’s tone). When we finally picked up Sparky!<\/em> (2014), Offill’s latest children’s book, for the boys, I was surprised to find it is in the running for my favorite new children’s book of the year. And, yes, it still has that bitter quality to it.<\/p>\n

\"Sparky<\/p>\n

As you might guess from the cover, Sparky is a sloth, and Chris Appelhans’ excellent illustrations make Sparky very slothy indeed, as his weight pulls him down on everything as if he’s a heavy blanket. What brings Sparky to us? A wonderful, caring, devoted young girl, the narrator of this story. When the story begins, she wants a pet, but her mother keeps saying no. Finally, sure, Mom says, “You can have any pet you want as long as it doesn’t need to be walked or bathed or fed.”<\/p>\n

Well, that’s all the young girl needs. Some hope. As her mother says this, you see her face breaking into a smile. After a bit of research, she finds just the pet: a sloth.<\/p>\n

And so begins this strange relationship, which gets at the girl’s devotion and desires as well as anything I can think of. The little girl does not care if her new friend sleeps almost all of the time or that he doesn’t play games quite right (meaning, at all); she needs someone. Just look at the thrill on her face when Sparky wakes up:<\/p>\n

\"Sparky-Back-Cover\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yes, Sparky!<\/em> is a charming book, an endearing book, and looking around I see many reviews calling it delightful. It certainly is. It’s also tremendously hopeful. And yet . . .<\/p>\n

Sparky!<\/em> is among the saddest books I’ve ever read, bringing out all the feelings of tenderness I can muster (I hope I’m capable of mustering a lot). The little girl is experiencing the loneliness of childhood, longing for companionship when others do not appreciate how devoted she must be. She has a lot to give, and she expects little in return.<\/p>\n

Sweet? Well, yes. But it’s a bitter sweet, especially as we linger on its last line, which I hope you’ll discover soon.<\/p>\n

\"Sparky<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation<\/em>, one of the best novels of 2014, has also come out with one of the best children’s books of 2014. Trevor reviews Offill’s latest children’s book, Sparky<\/em>. Read the full post<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[530],"tags":[780],"coauthors":[505],"class_list":["post-13964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jenny-offill","tag-childrens-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Sparky-Cover.jpg?fit=500%2C529&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-3De","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13964"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14084,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13964\/revisions\/14084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13964"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}