A Kind of Spark

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Wow. This is certainly one of the best middle-grade books I've ever read, and a terrific example of why, YES, adults should read middle-grade. Because the way McNicoll explains and explores what life is like for people like her, like Addie and Keedie, is so brilliant in both its simplicity and its depth, in its vulnerability and its strength, in its compassion and its confrontation. Readers, particularly neurotypical ones, are forced to question themselves over their own preconceived notions, poor assumptions, and if not outright cruelty than at least a sense of Have I always done right by people I've known who were struggling to live in a world that deems their lives disposable? It's not about making people feel ashamed to the point of immobility, but giving them the opportunity to use their shame as a motivating force toward becoming better, toward treating people better in the future than you may have done in the past. The TV series adds in a subplot depicting the Juniper witch hunt in the 16th century, following Maggie Frasier, a new character created solely for the series, alongside her sister Elinor, the maid Beth, and the witch hunter Adam Quinn running parallel to Addie in the present day trying to solve the mystery of what happened to Maggie. Perfect for readers of Song for a Whale and Counting by 7s, a neurodivergent girl campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different. A must-read for students and adults alike. -School Library Journal, Starred Review Ever since Ms. Murphy told us about the witch trials that happened centuries ago right here in Juniper, I can’t stop thinking about them. Those people weren’t magic. They were like me. Different like me. I’m autistic. I see things that others do not. I hear sounds that they can ignore. And sometimes I feel things all at once. I think about the witches, with no one to speak for them. Not everyone in our small town understands. But if I keep trying, maybe someone will. I won’t let the witches be forgotten. Because there is more to their story. Just like there is more to mine. Award-winning and neurodivergent author Elle McNicoll delivers an insightful and stirring debut about the European witch trials and a girl who refuses to relent in the fight for what she knows is right. A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll – eBook Details I absolutely adore a kind of spark. It is the best book with a neurodivegent character i have ever read. Its plot is compelling, the characters are wonderful and I highly recommend it. I thought that this book was amazing hence the rating 5/5. I would definitely give it a better rating if I could! I love that this book tells us more about autism and how it affects people. I really loved the bond between Addie and Keedie and especially Nina at the end. I would definitely recommend as this is one of my favourite books! Elle McNicoll is a great author!

Had I this book when I was a child maybe, maybe I’d have realised sooner that not only is not being normal ok, it can actually be a superpower. Maybe I’d have felt less out of place. Maybe it would of hurt less. ENGLISH The autistic community sees... so much ableism, and so many people trying to tell our stories and speak for us. So to have a book like this, for children, means so much. I've already read this book twice, because I found it somewhat hard to read at first and wanted to give myself the opportunity to really let it sink in and to form an actual opinion on it. It wasn't hard at first because I didn't like the book, but because it hit a little too close to home and I read it at a time where I couldn't handle that very well. The second time I read it, I found it such an empowering book. Addie is an extremely relatable main character, even for me at 27 years old, and it gave me so much strength to see how she stood up for herself and dealt with her teacher's and classmate's bullying. I would highly recommend this to everyone who's autistic and everyone who wants to understand autistic people better. Families can talk about bullying in A Kind of Spark. Addie discovers that people have trolled a video her sister posted about her on her social media channel. Has trolling or cyberbullying affected you? DUTCH De autistische gemeenschap heeft te maken met zoveel validisme en stigma, en veel mensen proberen ons verhaal te vertellen en voor ons te praten. Dus een boek als dit, voor kinderen, betekent heel veel. Ik heb dit boek al twee keer gelezen, omdat ik het de eerste keer wat lastig vond om te lezen en ik mezelf de kans wilde geven om het boek te laten bezinken en er daadwerkelijk een mening over te vormen. De eerste keer was het niet lastig omdat ik het een slecht boek vond, maar omdat het iets te dichtbij kwam allemaal en ik het las op een moment waarop ik daar niet zo goed mee om kon gaan. De tweede keer dat ik het las vond ik het zo empowering. Addie is een enorm herkenbare hoofdpersoon, zelfs voor mij als 27-jarige, en het gaf me zoveel kracht om te zien hoe ze voor zichzelf opkwam en omging met het pesten van haar docent en klasgenoten. Ik zou dit enorm aanraden aan iedereen die autistisch is en aan iedereen die autistische mensen graag beter wil begrijpen. The Illegible: Thanks to her motor control problems, Addie has poor handwriting, which results in her teacher Miss Murphy ripping up her story, throwing it away, and screaming at her for writing "lazily."Stealing the Credit: Doesn't exactly happen, but Addie is given no credit for the memorial she spent most of the book trying to have made. She doesn't mind too much, because at least the memorial was made. When Scottish author Elle McNicoll was first trying to enter the publishing world, she was repeatedly told that people didn’t want to read about an autistic heroine. “In job interviews, I was saying that I wanted to see more books with disabled characters in them that were not traumatic, boring or educational, but fun and full of life. A lot of the reactions were, ‘Waterstones don’t like books like that’,” she says. Alhoewel er al veel boeken op de markt zijn verschenen over autistische hoofdpersonages, beide origineel Nederlands en vertaald, concludeert schrijver Elle McNicoll in haar masterscriptie een gebrek aan neurodiverse auteurs die over hun eigen ervaringen schrijven.

A Kind of Spark may have a story about acceptance and understanding as its central thread but this takes nothing away from the fact that the story itself is engaging and finely plotted. I enjoyed finding out about why it was Addie’s elder twin sisters were so at odds with each other, or why Keedie desperately struggled with University Life. All the characters felt real and there was a well-woven and steady pace throughout the whole story. The cherry on the top of this already very well-written story though was being gifted with a glimpse into the world through the eyes of someone who is autistic. Morales, Macey (24 January 2022). "2022 Schneider Family Book Awards recipients named". American Library Association . Retrieved 13 February 2022. I'm neurotypical, and I can never fully understand what it feels like to traverse a world that isn't designed with me in mind. To have lights that physically hurt me, and to feel so overpowered by my surroundings that I can't cope. To mask who I really am every single day, just to fit in. But I can educate myself. I can read stories like this, I can put stories like this into my children's hands (one of whom is neurodivergent) and I can try to gain an insight into their world. A neurodivergent girl campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different.Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. Reading Addie’s experiences throughout this book were raw, and revealing and felt like reading my own experiences as an autistic person through a magnifying glass. The masking, overstimulation, meltdowns, hyper fixations and special interests… are just some of the things that are portrayed fantastically. Honestly, reading this book made me just want to give Mcnicoll a huge hug to say thank you.

Ever since Ms. Murphy told us about the witch trials that happened centuries ago right here in Juniper, I can’t stop thinking about them. Those people weren’t magic. They were like me. Different like me. Middle grade books with disability representation is very hard to come by, and 'A Kind of Spark' is Own Voices and written by a Neurodivergent writer. Elle McNicoll has done a phenomenal job at portraying the trials that autistic people have to face from neurotypical people. I am neurotypical and I didn't realise just how much I had to learn from Addie. I have come away from my experience reading this with a greater understanding of what it means to be autistic, and not just the differences, but the similarities between us. And as Addie says in the book, "But... while you may be neurotypical and I'm autistic, I promise. We are more alike than we are different." I'm struggling with how to write my review of this because I feel it's such an important book to read, and I can't quite express how much I want everyone to read it. I've given it 4 stars, but this, I cannot stress enough, is purely due to my own personal taste plot wise. I'm not a massive fan of contemporary or witches. This takes nothing away from how amazing this book is. Written by an own voices, neurodivergent author, you can really feel Addie's emotions and struggles because you know just how real they are. Every injustice, every act of unfairness, stands out and hits the reader in the gut. So many times I wanted to cry when an unkind word is thrown Addie's way, and when an adult dismisses her feelings and opinions.This is book about autism that's written by an author with autism, so much thought and experience has gone into the depiction of an autistic child's perceptions. At the same time, the autistic main character is learning about the history of witch trials in her Scottish town. Historical facts and nuances are plentiful (Bonnie Prince Charles, the Jacobites, Robert Burns are mentioned). Publishers Weekly applauded the representation of Addie's autism, stating, "McNicoll, herself neurodivergent, portrays with clarity Addie’s neurological reality, interpersonal bonds, and thoughtful reflections." [1] Deborah Stevenson, writing for The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, echoed the sentiment, writing, "McNicoll ... writes Addie’s narration with power and determination; it’s especially strong at revealing the sheer labor required for Addie to negotiate the world ... and the toll it takes, which is evident in Keedie as well." [4] Stevenson concluded, "Whether they’re facing similar neurodivergent challenges or not, readers will appreciate Addie’s honesty, and they may follow her lead in reconsidering history." [4] Awards Rare for most books, this book features more than one autistic character, and the tender relationship between Addie and her older sister Keedie is so touching. There is a sweet moment between them that made me cry so much I alarmed my dog. “Other people’s minds are small. Your mind is enormous. It has room for everything and everyone. You don’t want to be like other people.” How many of us have needed to hear that in our lives?⁠