A review by sleepyshelves
A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I still have so many feelings, and the longer I sit with them the more intimidating writing a review becomes.
Addie is autistic; she loves sharks (did you know they can sense electricity????) and she loves words (she carries a pocket thesaurus her sister gave her with her everywhere). She really just loves to learn. When her class starts learning about witches, she can’t help that she needs to know everything she can – these women who were killed for being different resonate with her in a way that no one in her class seems to understand, including her teacher. She immediately begins to lobby for a memorial for the women she’s come to relate with. But her town won’t take her seriously, in fact, they seem to blame her “poor behavior” on her sister.
An earnest examination of the treatment of autistic children, A Kind of Spark doesn’t shy away from the way adults and kids alike bully their autistic peers. What starts as a simple, honest plea for recognition turns into a fight against the greater population of her small town, and McNicoll’s dedicated, compassionate voice fills each page, uplifting Addie and Keedie with a transparency that comes from personal connections. I can’t find the correct words to articulate the impact of such a straightforward story.
Not generally a huge fan of contemporary work, I was floored by how compulsively I was reading McNicoll’s debut. I’m now confronted with the obstacle of the prequel (Keedie, Addie’s older sister, is also autistic and has her own story coming out) being released in the UK and not in the US. Reading this book has had profound reverberations through my personal life in the past few weeks since.
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