Sometimes stuff for kids–books, movies, television–is either too dumbed down or too blowing-sunshine-up-their-butts for me. I can understand the desire to shield kids from the bad stuff that happens in life, but at the same time, kids are much smarter than a lot of adults give them credit for. I’m always pleased when I come across a cartoon or a middle grade book that deals with tough issues without shying away from the dark parts, and I especially appreciate stuff that is complex, that assumes its young readers or viewers are smart and capable of understanding nuance.
Sparkers deals with a very relevant issue for today’s readers: prejudice. The city-state of Ashara is built on a backbone of magic, but the population itself is mostly halani, people who cannot use magic. The kasiri, magic users, are the ones in charge, though; mistrust of the kasiri is widespread throughout the halani, and the kasiri tend to view halani as second class citizens.
Marah is a halani who finds herself in the middle of a very dangerous situation. People have started falling ill with a dangerous new disease, and she must cross class lines and work with Azariah, a kasiri boy, to find a cure and avoid the agents of the ruling assembly.
I think the most impressive thing about this book is that Glewwe is careful to cast each character, both halani and kasiri, as a complicated human being. Some characters have prejudices but the reader is never told who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Though Marah is our point of view character and a halani, we’re never given the idea that all halani are good and all kasiri are bad. Even Marah has reservations about being around Azariah and his family at first, but she quickly learns that not all kasiri are bad or are even prejudiced against the halani. This kind of nuance is welcome in a book aimed at middle graders, and frankly I wish I would see less of the black-and-white, cut-and-dry good guys and bad guys and more books like Sparkers.
Younger readers might find the book a bit slow to start, and to give fair warning, the ending doesn’t wrap up all of the problems neatly in a happy bow (though it is very hopeful). As an adult reader, I did think that the plot moved rather slow at the beginning, but I was enchanted by the worldbuilding, which made me much more forgiving of the deliberate pace. The invented world is fascinating, and I’d love to read more stories set in it.
Overall, Sparkers is a mature look at social justice themes that is both easy to read and morally complex.
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