Set Adrift —
A mystery and a memoir
A Tragic Loss, an Orphaned Childhood, and the Eventual Unstorying of a Life
Available at Amazon, Bookshop, and other fine retailers.
In January, 1958, a renowned sailing family was lost in a storm in the Bermuda Triangle. The youngest of two daughters, Sarah, suddenly an orphan, grew up never knowing her parents and grandparents. As an adult, she began to pursue the mystery of her family and their disappearance, and discovered that their stories were far different from the versions she was told. Sarah Conover’s memoir follows the national media’s investigation of the Revonoc’s vanishing, and exposes the truths that led her to “unstory” the family history, creating a new understanding of their lives, and hers.
Set Adrift weaves Conover’s superbly written memoir with interviews, magazine articles, and official Coast Guard reports to chart her fascinating life story. While still infants, she and her sister were the subjects of a custody battle between their grandmother, Mere, and their eventual adoptive parents, Fran and Dick, whose lives, and those of their lost parents and grandparents, were shrouded in myths born of the fight for the girls’ affections. Later, Sarah created her own life, and through her personal growth was able to explore the lives of her ancestors, ultimately realizing the truth about both them, and those who remained. Set Adrift begins as a story about loss and loneliness, but blossoms into one of love and belonging.
Katha Sagar, Ocean of Stories: Hindu Wisdom for Every Age
2017
from School Library Journal:
Conover and Janamanchi introduce more than 20 rich and varied Hindu myths and parables culled from epics, folk tradition, sacred literature, and 19th-century writer Ramakrishna. A brief, informative essay on Hinduism is included for readers who are unfamiliar with the subject. Throughout the stories, the gods can be scary and violent (Shiva beheads his small son and incinerates Kamadeva), and even sages don’t always behave admirably, but virtues are firmly endorsed, and vices—specifically selfish greed—are condemned.
Reviews:
”Sarah Conover and Abhi Janamanchi have created a captivating collection full of the sights and sounds of India, with stories selected from Hindu epics and folk tales. Additional resources provide information on Hinduism.”
— Library Journal
Muhammad: The Story of a Prophet and Reformer
by Sarah Conover (Author), Eboo Patel (Foreword)
Also available as an eBook in the Amazon Kindle Store and on Google Play.
Watch a video on YouTube from Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith Youth Core, as he talks about Muhammad: The Story of a Prophet and Reformer
In the pages of Muhammad: The Story of a Prophet and Reformer, young readers will encounter a man very different from the figure often presented in Western popular culture. Drawing from biographies, the Quran, and hadith, Sarah Conover, co-author of Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents, relates the story of a radical prophet who challenged the rich and powerful, guided his community of followers through a dangerous time of persecution and exile, formed alliances with people of different beliefs, and preached “love for humanity what you love for yourself.”
Before he became one of the most venerated, and most misunderstood, religious leaders in history, Muhammad was an orphaned child and a shepherd.
Written for readers 12 and up, and with a foreword by Eboo Patel (founder of Interfaith Youth Core and a member of the President’s Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships), Muhammad: The Story of a Prophet and Reformer will educate and inspire youth and adults of all faiths. To read the Discussion and Reflection Guide click here.
Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents (This Little Light of Mine)
Adapted by Sarah Conover , Freda Crane
Ayat Jamilah/Beautiful Signs: a Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents is winner of the 2004 Aesop Prize. A young adult/adult crossover anthology, it draws from not only the core of Islamic spirituality and ethics, the Qur’an, and the traditions (hadiths), but also from the mystical verse, folk tales, and exemplary figures of the Islamic narrative. Unlike any other collection of Islamic stories, Beautiful Signs gathers traditional stories from the farthest reaches of the Muslim world, which stretches from Morocco in the west to Indonesia in the east, and from China in the north to Tanzania in the south. This unique anthology, with its rich and thorough explanatory notes, will be invaluable to anyone wishing to understand, or to teach, geography, world history, or world religions. It will also be treasured by Muslim families and by all parents committed to broadening the lives and values of their children and themselves.
"Many of the tales from Ayat Jamilah will make excellent read-alouds, and the adapters have done a magnificent job of collecting stories from throughout the Islamic world, from China to Africa to the Middle East."
- John Green, The American Library Association.
Reviews:
NewsweekSaudi
Aramco World
Listen to a reading of Zah! A Tale From Iran from Ayat Jamilah.
Chaos, Wonder and the Spiritual Adventure of Parenting: An Anthology Paperback
(Previously entitled At Work in Life’s Garden)
Contributing Editors: Sarah Conover , Tracy Springberry
Exceptional writers such as Barbara Kingsolver, Barry Lopez, Rosemary Bray McNatt and Scott Russell Sanders reflect on how children have transformed their spiritual lives. Contributors explore those times when children helped them appreciate the mystery and beauty of life, how children threw them into battles with their souls, and how children helped them say “yes” to living. The writers are from diverse spiritual traditions.
Reviews:
Foreword Magazine
Daughters of the Desert: Stories of Remarkable Women from Christian, Jewish and Muslim Traditions
by Claire Rudolf Murphy (Author), Meghan Nuttall Sayres (Author), Mary Cronk Farrell (Author), Sarah Conover (Author), Betsy Wharton (Author)
This ground-breaking collection of short stories brings to life the women—daring, brave, thoughtful, and wise—who played important and exciting roles in the early days of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Join Esther as she stands against injustice and her king to save her people, Aisha as she leads hundreds of men into terrifying battle, and Mary as she and Elizabeth dream of the new lives growing inside them. How must Sarah have felt, turning Hagar out into the desert? And how must Hagar have felt, traveling from the safety and security of Abraham’s land toward an uncertain future? These stories invite us to come to know and appreciate the struggles and triumphs of these women—mothers, daughters, believers and seekers.
Reviews:
Booklist
Harmony: A Treasury of Chinese Wisdom for Children and Parents (This Little Light of Mine) Paperback – October 31, 2008
by Sarah Conover (Author), Chen Hui (Author), Ji Ruoxiao (Illustrator)
Harmony: A Treasury of Chinese Wisdom for Children and Parents is a collection of traditional stories from one of the world’s oldest civilizations. For over two thousand years, the Chinese have used brief sayings known as chengyu to sum up practical wisdom and ethical principles. Most chengyu are associated with a story that illustrates their meaning, and these stories have been passed down by word of mouth over the centuries.
Reviews:
Spokesman Review
Kindness: A Treasury of Buddhist Wisdom for Children and Parents (This Little Light of Mine)
by Sarah Conover (Author), Valerie Wahl (Illustrator)
Winner of the 2002 Skipping Stones Award for Multicultural Diversity. Sarah Conover’s collection of traditional Buddhist tales leads us to the kind of implicit understanding of ourselves and others that only stories can provide. Following the Buddha through his various transformations, these clarified, often humorous narrative journeys open the ancient masters profound and gentle teachings to persons of all ages, religions, races, and ideological persuasions. And the stories themselves, simply as stories, from a wondrous pageant: of elephants, monkeys, monks, and men working through foolishness toward wisdom and delight.
Listen to a reading of A Man, Two Tigers and a Strawberry from Kindness.
Listen to a reading of Castles of Sand from Kindness.
Reviews:
Booklist