The Spark in Me

by Miguel Tanco

Overview

A young girl sees the world differently in this beautiful picture book exploration of physics.

Everyone has their thing. Some people are dreamers. Some people are practical. Some people like to invent things. Our heroine isn't sure what her thing is. But she knows she has a lot of questions, like could she be faster than her own echo? If she built a giant paper boat, could she sail the sea? And how strong would she need to be to launch another kid into orbit from a teeter-totter? Eventually, she learns that all her questions have to do with one thing: physics!

In this thoughtful and gorgeous ode to the search for knowledge and finding one's passion, phsyics becomes a way for our heroine to ponder the magic of the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781774885819
Publisher:	Tundra Book Group
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
File size:	40 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Award-winning artist MIGUEL TANCO is a children's book author and illustrator. He teaches illustration and organizes creative workshops for kids in Spain, where he was born and raised, and in Italy. He has published over forty children's books including My Best Friend; Count on Me; Great Dog; You and Me, Me and You; Les Farfelus; and The Story of Cyrano de Bergerac. He lives in Milan with his wife, Federica, and their two sons, Pablo and Javier.

Editorial Reviews

"An inventive way to link posing questions with looking for answers." —Kirkus Reviews

"This book is an endorsement for readers to take a look around, question the world around them, and seek knowledge wherever they go." —School Library Journal

"Just as poetry was the spark that released James Earl Jones’s voice, and Edward Gorey’s imagination prompted his unique art, curiosity is the spark that drives the child in Miguel Tanco’s book. Filled with questions (‘If water is transparent, why is snow white?’; ‘If the galaxy is packed with stars, why is it so dark?’; ‘Is it possible to be faster than an echo?’), the child voices them in class and his teacher takes him to the library, where all his questions can be answered and where he can transform his dreams ‘into something real.’" —Montreal Gazette

"Miguel Tanco inhabits the world of children, consumed with both excitement and their sense of initiative, as they steer a course towards knowledge of the world." —Imaginary Elevators

From the Publisher

2024-06-15
A child abuzz with questions about the natural world finds essential tools for addressing them.

Gifted with a free-floating imagination, the young narrator—who’s depicted with brown skin and multiple long, tight braids—wonders why the starlit night sky is dark, why snow is white even though water is transparent, if it might be possible to walk on the ceiling or sail the seas in a paper boat, and other common conundrums. A teacher’s suggestion that a visit to the library might help answer those questions leads (as it would) to the life-altering revelation that “there’s a name for the spark I feel inside. It’s called physics!” And then, as Tanco’s depictions of the child’s airy visions and ingenious inventions suddenly switch to images of research notebook pages with simple line drawings, so, too, does the narrative turn to basic science notes: on gravity, light absorption and reflection, Archimedes’ principle, and other fundamentals certain to be helpful to young readers prone to generating similar queries and visions of their own. The child’s supportive parents and sibs are likewise brown-skinned; students in a classroom scene are racially diverse.

An inventive way to link posing questions with looking for answers.(Informational picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews