It’s about time for another book review!! Spark is a kids book, so it’s a quick, light read. I found it incredibly sweet and refreshing, but with an important message: use your voice.
Book: Spark
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Age range: 8-12 (although you could read it out loud to a 7 year old, possibly a very attentive 6 year old)
Myrmigrade: 
Story
The book is about Mina, who lives in a country called Alorria. In Alorria, there are dragons (storm beasts) that control the weather. These storm beasts are hatched by kids (guardians), who then work with the government to make Alorria a safe and peaceful place.
Mina is quiet, studious, and artsy. Her dragon is a lightening beast – and lightening guardians are generally loud and boisterous. But she is determined to make a difference in the world and to help others.
Analysis
Ok, so full disclosure, I kept waiting for Alorria to become the dystopia we are all familiar with in literature. It didn’t, and I found it quite refreshing. It was simply a country doing what was best for them – and creating chaos for the rest of the world. However, it’s a genuinely good place where people are genuinely happy and good.
Mina wants to use her voice to help everyone – Alorrians and “outsiders” alike. When she finds out that Alorria’s use of storm beasts creates havoc in the rest of the world, she wants to raise awareness and help the “outsiders.”
I LOVED Mina. She is quiet, creative, imaginative…AND THAT DOESNT CHANGE. She uses her strengths – which are different from the typical lightening guardian strengths – to achieve the same ends. She works through learning to believe in herself and her own ideas. She also has a (mostly) supportive family and some very supportive friends.
A Much Needed Book
When I was growing up, all the girls in stories were tom-boys and hated doing girly things. That’s totally fine. But those girls are not generally reading books. The quiet, creative types are. Obviously I want girls of all types in books, but the quiet ones were never present.
And that was crushing. I felt like I wasn’t a good enough “girl.” So, I gave up on kids literature pretty early on and moved to classics. That’s not necessarily bad, but I missed a lot of fun books because I couldn’t see myself in any of them. It also shows a major gap in understanding between what grown ups wanted kids to be and the reality of what they are. I love that we’ve entered a era where girls can have all sorts of passions – even traditionally “girly” ones.
I Planned One Thing and Then…
Originally, I made the “seeking God” section just as cheerful and lighthearted as the rest of this post. This was originally set to post on May 25, 2022. And on May 24, evil reigned.
In the morning, I read a BBC article on leaked intel documenting the Uyghur genocide in China. All day, I read articles on the May 22 report of the vile SBC coverup of sexual assault. And in the evening, I was reading reports of children being shot at an elementary school in Texas.
Yes, evil reigned. We need to mourn. We need to pray. But more importantly, we need to take action. And we can only do that if we use our voice.
Seeking God: Use Your Voice
I try not to write about current events on my blog. People don’t come here for that. But literature is meant to help us think about the world we live in.
Like Mina, we live in a world that needs us to use our voice.
This book is such a needed testament to the power of using your voice. Originally, Mina just wants to tell others at her school about the dangers of using storm beasts. But she ends up telling the entire country.
Maybe you struggle to use your voice, like Mina. Maybe you think your voice is too small to get noticed, like Mina.
Don’t give up. Use your strengths to get your voice heard. Mina starts by drawing pictures as pamphlets. She starts small – and it grows, becoming bigger than she could ever imagine.
Use your voice to advocate for those who can’t. Use it to bring awareness of where people are vulnerable – and then take action. Maybe it’s boycotting something. Maybe it’s posting on social media. Or maybe it’s relentlessly advocating on the political scene.
Whatever it is, however you do it, use your voice. For the love of God, USE IT. Our world needs it. More than we know.
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” ~ Proverbs 31:8-9
