A Kind of Spark

Elle McNicoll's A Kind of Spark is a moving story for 10 year olds about an autistic girl who won't let her village forget the women it once called witches.

What happens

Addie lives in Juniper, a small village a good way out of Edinburgh. She loves sharks, her pocket thesaurus and the quiet of the school library. She doesn't love bright lights, screeching bells or her new teacher, Ms Murphy, who rips up Addie's story in front of the class because of her messy handwriting.

Then Ms Murphy starts a class project on the Scottish witch trials. Women were tied up and thrown into the Nor' Loch, and some of them came from Juniper itself. The class finds it funny (one girl says Addie would have been burned too). Addie's mind keeps going back to them. She's sure those women had no magic at all. They were simply different, the way she is.

So she stands up at the village committee meeting and asks for a memorial. When the grown-ups say no, she decides to keep asking.

Addie tells the story herself, and it's like being inside her head. You feel the school bell drilling into her and the flickering light that's like a needle in her eye. You also see how clearly she spots what's unfair, when everyone around her just shrugs.

Her family are a big part of it. Keedie, her older sister, is autistic too, and she's the only person Addie ever hugs. Nina, Keedie's twin, makes make-up videos and can't quite work out how to be close to Addie. The sisters' rows are messy and very real.

There's a new friend too. Audrey, the new girl from London, sits down beside Addie in the library and starts helping with the research. Who doesn't want an Audrey?

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The teacher is properly cruel. Addie remembers a babysitter pinning Keedie to the floor when they were small, and she reads horrible comments about herself online. The witch trials are described plainly, torture and burning included, and there's the odd mild swear word. If your reader is sensitive to unkindness from grown-ups, those bits might be hard (though her family are always firmly on her side).

For a reader who's ready for it, this is a book that will make them angry in a good way. It's also a lovely look at how the world can feel to an autistic child.

What to read next

If they want more of a girl who sees the world her own way, try Can You See Me? It's Tally's story. She's autistic too, and very nervous about starting at a new school.