The Bluebird and the Sparrow

The Bluebird and the Sparrow is a novel by the Canadian writer Janette Oke, published in 1995. It is the tenth book of the Women of the West series, and it is set among the pioneer families of the frontier.

Berta is the older sister, and from childhood she is used to hearing visitors praise Glenna's curls and blue eyes instead of anything about her. Somewhere in the middle of that she decides that whatever Glenna is, she will be the opposite.

The decision holds. Glenna grows up sparkling, vivacious and adored, and Berta grows up serious, dependable and prim, and the two of them have less and less to do with one another as the years go by.

The novel is about the rift between them and about what actually caused it, and it is written as a story of Christian faith as well as of a family, since Berta has to look honestly at what she has made of herself and why. What she has to face is the part she played in it, which is not the part she has always told herself.