Middle-Grade Review: Spark By Chris Baron

Finn and his friend Rabbit love their California neighborhood of Redwood Hollows, and especially like following the local wildlife, even posting trail cameras to track animals. Finn’s family has been in the area ever since his grandfather came to the country. Their area has been without rain for 151 days, and since his father works construction, he’s not had any jobs. Finn’s mother works as the local animal resue, so the family is hanging on, but when the father gets a construction job with the father of Jonah Oster, who gives Finn a hard time in school, they are relieved. Finn, however, is concerned about the environmental impact of the project, which will put housing very close to the forest. Since there have been a number of fires, he and Rabbit are opposed. When the Redwood Hollows community is devastated by fires, Finn and his friends are scattered. Finn’s family goes to their Aunt Juliet’s, Rabbit goes to Amarillo, Texas, and Mia goes to Crescent City. Rabbit’s dog goes missing. It’s a fraught time made only a bit better by the efforts of school counselor Mr. Finkel, who invites the students to virtual class meetings to process their feelings. He’s been covering classes for Rabbit’s Uncle Charlie, who is a climate scientist from the Philippines who is trying to convince people to improve the wildland-urban interface to prevent future fires. When Rabbit’s trail cam shows that Oster’s equipment might have started the fires, the community rallies against further development, and rebuilding tries to consider the environmental implications.