Review: Each Tiny Spark

Each Tiny Spark by Pablo Cartaya
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emilia has a hard time focusing on topics that don't interest her, but when she is interested in something, she becomes laser-focused on it. This neuro-diversity makes school challenging; her mom tries to help her compensate by planning out her school week for her and staying on top of her assignments. How is Emilia supposed to cope when her mom goes out of town for business at the exact same time her father is returning from deployment. To make matters worse, her grandmother is becoming super annoying; all she wants to talk about is how Emilia is going to be a young lady soon. Gross! Abuela wants to buy Emilia dresses and start prepping for her quinceanera, which is only three years away. Emilia would rather spend her time fixing up old cars with her dad or making horror movies with her best friend Gus.

When her favorite teacher asks her class to come up with a tourism guide for their hometown, Emilia discovers disturbing information about the treatment of immigrants in her state and community. This information along with a highly contested district rezoning makes her see her community and old friends in a new light. Is Emilia willing to stand by and let things happen to those she loves, or will she take a stand for what is right?

Pablo Cartaya's latest novel is very timely. His main character learns that immigrants were asked to come to Atlanta to help build the Olympic park and stadium; however, once their work was done, people expected them to leave. With immigration reform at the forefront of the next presidential election, this book may help middle-grade students develop their own opinions about the topic. I think it would be really interesting for teachers to use this book as a catalyst to inspire students to research their own communities and the contributions immigrants have made to them.

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