History Literature / AKindOfSpark

''A Kind of Spark'' is the debut novel of Scottish children's author Creator/ElleMcNicoll published in 2020 during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

* AuthorAvatar: Two in one book: writer Creator/ElleMcNicoll has said that Addie is herself as a younger child and Keedie is herself as an adult. Like Addie, [=McNicoll=] had a childhood fascination with sharks and witches and both characters are autistic like [=McNicoll=] herself.

A 10-episode [[BritishSeries TV series adaptation]] was released on the BBC iPlayer in March 2023, late debuting on the Creator/{{CBBC}} Channel, with a parallel subplot about one of the young women accused of witchcraft in the Juniper of the 16th century. A second season has been greenlit.

A prequel novel centring on Keedie, simply titled ''Keedie'', has been announced, with a release date of April of 2024.

Published during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic pandemic to little anticipation and written by an autistic author, A ''Kind of Spark'' soon took the publishing industry by storm with its simple, but passionate and piercing insight of the world through the perspective of an autistic girl, something that has been left largely unexplored in depth. Most well-known works were dealing with boys and men, and were written from a neurotypical (non-autistic) creator.

A prequel novel centring on Keedie, simply titled ''Keedie'', was announced, with a release date of April of 2024.

A 10-episode [[BritishSeries TV series adaptation]] was released on the BBC iPlayer in March 2023, late debuting on the Creator/{{CBBC}} Channel, with a parallel subplot about one of the young women accused of witchcraft in the Juniper of the 16th century.

* AdaptationExpansion: The [=TV=] series adds things that weren't present in the book, such as additional background on Audrey, several new characters, and an entire subplot taking place in the 1590s involving a supposed witch named Maggie Frasier.

Published during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic pandemic to little anticipation and written by an autistic author A ''Kind of Spark'' soon took the publishing industry by storm with its simple, but passionate and piercing insight of the world through the perspective of an autistic girl, something that has been left largely unexplored in depth with most well-known works dealing with boys and men and written from a neurotypical (non-autistic) creator.

A 10-episode [[BritishSeries TV series adaptation]] was released on the BBC iPlayer in March 2023, late debuting on the Creator/{{CBBC}} Channel with a parallel subplot about one of the young women accused of witchcraft in the Juniper of the 16th century.

It is the story of Addie Darrow, an eleven-year-old autistic girl living in the village of Juniper, just outside of Edinburgh, who struggles to navigate the complicated world around her, from home to school, where she is often bullied, both by her former friend Jenna and her teacher Ms Murphy. A sensitive and imaginative girl, Addie’s special interests include sharks and looking up new words in her thesaurus, but one day a lesson in Juniper’s local history sparks a new passion, witches, specifically her village’s status as having executed the most women accused of witchcraft than anywhere else in Britain. The more Addie learns about the alleged witches leads her to believe that they may have autistic like her, prompting her to start a campaign for the village to put up a memorial to the Juniper witches.

* IronicName: Miss Murphy, a teacher who bullies Addie and Keedie because they are autistic; is revealed to be named Greta.[[note]] Whom she shares with arguably the world's most famous autistic girl who started the School Strike for Climate wherein children and teenagers protest government buildings instead of attending school on Fridays.[[/note]]

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Addie and Keedie are treated as unusual and frequently misunderstood by their community, ranging from condescension to outright bullying.

* CanonForeigner: The [=TV=] series adds in a subplot depicting the Juniper witch hunt in the 16th century, following Maggie Frasier, a new character created solely for the series, alongside her sister Elinor, the maid Beth, and the witch hunter Adam Quinn running parallel to Addie in the present day trying to solve the mystery of what happened to Maggie.

''A Kind of Spark'' is the debut novel of Scottish children's author Elle [=McNicoll=] published in 2020 during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

* AuthorAvatar: Two in one book: writer Elle [=McNicoll=] has said that Addie is herself as a younger child and Keedie is herself as an adult. Like Addie, [=McNicoll=] had a childhood fascination with sharks and witches and both characters are autistic like [=McNicoll=] herself.

* CreatorCameo: Elle [=McNicoll=] makes a cameo appearance in the last episode of the TV adaptation as one of the crowd during Addie's final speech.