Lisa Ann Sandel'sThe Song of the Sparrow spins the most beautiful story of family, love, and, most importantly, courage. This may seem cliché to many people, and, when I describe it like that, it does. Sandel writes it so well, the plot feels like anything but some stereotypical love story. Even more interestingly, it is written as an epic. For those of you who don't know, an epic is a very long poem, akin to the Illiad and the Odyssey. It is only fitting that the story be set in the time of the legendary King Arthur. Because of her mother's death and destruction of her family home by the Saxons, the protagonist, Elaine, is the only woman among a sea of men at the army encampment of King Arthur. She lives with her father and two brothers, Lavain and Tirry. She becomes friends with all the men in the encampment, including King Arthur himself, and the famous Sir Lancelot. Elaine is happy and comfortable there, until a series of events cause her life to turn upside down. Arthur must bring his army to fight the Saxons and Elaine must stay behind with Gwynivere, Arthur's betrothed, and rival-in-love for Lancelot's heart. Elaine does not like this and secretly follows the army, but, after losing track of them, she is captured by the Saxons, along with Gwynivere, who followed her. After escaping, Elaine is nearly killed when Arthur's army arrives and they are able to ambush the Saxons. She survives and realizes her own happiness in Tristan, her best friend, and a boy who was cursed not to love, but somehow loves her back. She, Tristan, and a number of others in the army agree to go with Arthur and build Camelot together.

What I love most about Song of the Sparrow are the female friendships. Despite the limited amount of females in the book, it has some of the best relationships between the women I have ever seen. Morgan, Arthur's older sister, develops a mentor/student relationship with Elaine and is her confidant. We only see Morgan briefly, but we see that Elaine definitely learnt most of what she knows from her, especially her herbal medicine knowledge. Elaine and Gwynivere's relationship defies stereotypes of women in a romantic rivalry. In the beginning, their rocky relationship stems from both their feelings toward Lancelot. However, after being trapped together by the Saxons and having to survive together, they create a friendship of understanding and love. Both let go of their feelings for Lancelot and grow together with their respective partners.

The prose and lyrical qualities of this book bring the characters from the King Arthur legend to life and gives us a whole new perspective of maturity and flying