for National Hispanic Heritage Month

Each Tiny Spark : Be brave and light up the world   by Pablo Cartana

Also author of Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora

short review

•  slow pace
•  multi layered
•  middle grade 
•  6^th grade class
• many themes
•  PTSD
•  immigration
•  ADHA
•  bilingualism 
• heritage
• and food

Emilia Rosa lives in Northern Georgia with her mother and Abuela. At beginning of the novel, Emilia Rosa’s dad is a deployed Marine; he returns by chapter six.  Her mother, an app designer has gone to San Francisco for a conference.  The family texts back and forth daily; Emilia Rosa’s mother will pop in for video chats from the West Coast.  Mom stays on top of Emilia Rosa’s progress in school because of her ADHD.  There are generational conflicts between Abuela and Emilia Rosa and Mom which could lead to fireworks in a discussion group. The themes listed above, may work well for a small group, possibly grades 4, 5 and above.

Personally, I enjoyed both books and the inclusion of Spanish dialog, which gave me a little practice in conversational Spanish