The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper

Sparrow is the seventh daughter of a family of all women who are psychics. They are in contact with spirits who have messages for their loved ones, and Sparrow's family passes them on, along with the other residents of Lilly Dale. The seventh daughter is supposed to have extrodinary power, and Sparrow does, she just chooses not to use it. All of her six sisters, her mom, and grandmother use there powers on a daily basis. There are even gatherings at their own home. When school starts Sparrow decides to go to a high school an hour away where no one knows who she is or where she's from. On the first day she meets Fiona, who is a talker and wants to know everthing about Sparrow. Sparrow keeps the truth hidden from Fiona until later in the book. In their history class she sees a ghost of a young man. She is also paired with Jake to do a research project for the semester. Jake suggests they do it on Lilly Dale, where all of the psychics live, and of course Sparrow's family. As she gets to know Jake he tells her about his brother who got lost hiking. He still thinks he's alive, but he's not. Luke, Jake's brother, is in contact with Sparrow and wants her help so his family will know what happened to him. On the anniversary of his disappearance at a service Sparrow's true powers finally show when she delivers messages from Luke to his family, who is in attendance. They don't belive her, but Jake does a little and that leads to him and Sparrow taking the same trail that Luke did one year ago. That trail leads to a face to face, so to speak, of two brothers, one living and one dead.
A good book with quite a few funny parts in it. I liked how Sparrow tries to be a normal teenager even though she has spirits around her most of the time. Her family is a ritot to, I wouldn't know what to do if my parents had had 6 girls and I was the only boy.

T. B. 8/29/07