A kind of spark by Elle McNicoll

A kind of spark is the debut novel by Elle McNicoll. It was published in 2023 and was closely followed by Like a charm. A kind of spark is a warm and well-constructed novel. This reader recommends the latter Like a charm more strongly than A kind of spark as the growth in McNicholl's authorial skill such as the increased depth of skill in creating setting and historical background makes the second book of more value to children as a piece of literature. However, A Kind of spark is an enchanting, funny and heartbreaking novel and recommended too.

Elle McNicholl offers more than many current writers, who it seems, espouse the neurodiversity or disability or genderdiversity agendas with a thin narrative woven around the cause that they wish to promote. McNicholl, by contrast, does not allow the issue to eclipse the story. She offers rich settings and interesting characters who are able to time travel or at least tap into periods of history. This creates multi layers to her stories that make her books a worthwhile contribution to the literature that our children are exposed to that goes far beyond agenda-driven offerings.

In A kind of spark, we see the world directly through the first person authorial voice of Addie. Addie comes from a very warm, funny and interesting family. She and her sister are both autistic and McNicholl describes the autistic view of the world as being supercharged, supersensitive to particular stimuli and a special and valuable thing. Through Addie's clear descriptions we see the good and the bad in people and a very clear sense of justice. Addie is a fighter. When she discovers that her village was a centre of witch trials and witch hunts in previous times, she fights to have a memorial built to recognise those poor hunted women and girls who suffered because, like Addie, they were a little different. Modern day cruelty to the child who is different is demonstrated in the character of Miss Murphy, Addie's school teacher. Nasty classroom and playground incidents raise uncomfortable questions about the treatment of autistic children, especially those who have meltdowns, in mainstream classrooms today.

Addie has a visceral connection with a tree in Juniper Woods where witches were tortured and hung in the past. After a school excursion to this tree awakens her understanding, she researches and campaigns to raise funds for a public apology in the form of a memorial in her village that had previously and still did prefer to close its eyes to the facts of the past.

Through the  lively, feisty, strongly sensitive and clear-eyed intelligence of Addie, the reader is invited into a lived view and experience of autism. McNicholl has cleverly linked the outsider/ difference experience of autism with the possibility that the "witches" of the past were simply poor girls and women who could have been autistic or at least just a little different to the mainstream. The hunting and killing of witches in the past and the bullying of autistic children by their peers, some adults and ostracism within communities today may be ignorant behaviours and prejudices that have not improved much over the years. Further ostracism of difference is exemplified by the enigmatic Mrs Miriam Jensen who lives on the periphery of the village (really within the woods) who is treated by the villagers as something of a strange old woman. At the culmination of the story Addie tries to push through a crowd of people to thank Mrs Jensen..."But she seemed to vanish." McNicholl knows how to create ambiguity... 

A kind of spark would be  a great book to read to classes aged 10+ especially if the aim is to help children accept and understand difference in their peers or even in themselves. The delightful Addie is a character who children will relate to and the other characters are far from flat. The  storyline  and authorial voice are captivating.

A kind of spark is warmly recommended along with other books by Elle McNicholl.

Themes: Courage, Friendship, Difference (autism), Witches.

Wendy Jeffrey