Spark

By Author / Illustrator

Mitch Johnson

Genre

Dystopian

Age range(s)

Publisher

Hachette Children's Group

ISBN

9781510107632

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

03-02-2022

Synopsis

In a world struggling to exist, only the strongest will survive. The explosive, action-packed new adventure from the award-winning author of Kick and Pop!

Ash has always lived in Last Village, lonely since the day his father left and never came back. The world is unbearably hot, water is drying up, and life is hard. After a vicious thunderstorm, Ash wakes to find that the village's water has completely run out, and all the other villagers have mysteriously disappeared. Accompanied by the outcast Bronwyn, Ash sets off in search of water, for answers about what happened to the villagers, with hope they might find 'The Kingdom' - a rumoured land to the north where life still flourishes.

Ash and Bronwyn have to survive a journey across an arid landscape, discovering that other people out there are even more dangerous than the lightning strikes that follow them. Then they reach The Wall - beyond it, something impossible. Lying in wait are the answers Ash is searching for, and maybe even the truth about what happened to his father. If only he could get past The Wall... Sometimes all it takes is just one spark.

Reviews

Spark is a very cleverly written dystopian story! Ash knows what it is like to be an outcast - his father left, never to return, and because of this he is shammed and misunderstood by the other villagers. The village Priestess took Ash in and provides some safeness from the cruel village children.

When Bronwyn first arrives, brought in by an elder, Ash watches from the darkness. A suspicious stranger, the elder says, who has suddenly arrived in the village. She is hungry, filthy and the only survivor from her own village - everyone else just 'disappeared'.

A little later, after the disappearance of all the villagers in his own village, and upon discovering the Priestess dead, Ash and Bronwyn set out on a quest to find the 'Kingdom' where Ash believes that he will find answers (and his father).

Mitch Johnson's brilliant description of 'The Wall' brought images in my head of the one in of Game of Thrones - a colossal structure! I loved the book. It had many twists and turns as the two characters continued on their quest. Utter brilliance!

286 Pages / Reviewed by Donna Ritchie, teacher