Smart, creative Emilia Torres, 12, is hyper-focused when engaged, but organization is a challenge. Her app developer mom, on a work trip, stays connected by video chat, while her dad, just home from a tour of duty overseas, is sometimes funny and affectionate and sometimes moody and withdrawn, making it hard for Emilia to reconnect with him. He opens up when teaching Emilia to weld, but she often feels the weight of his silence, along with the weight of expectations from her mom and Abuela. A social studies project researching the history of Latinx emigration to the Atlanta area, and ongoing discussions about redrawing school boundaries in her town, which would bring more Black and Latinx students to Emilia’s school, has Emilia thinking about justice, and fairness. Anti-immigration sentiment puts people she knows at risk, while many are quick with opinions about the proposed school boundaries, but no one is asking what kids and families who would be forced to change schools think. For Emilia, the importance of being seen, heard, and valued extends from her personal life, where she feels loved but not always listened to, to her community. Cuban American Emilia and her family are the believable, compelling center of an ambitious story that naturally integrates Spanish throughout. (Ages 9–12)

From award-winning author Pablo Cartaya comes a deeply moving middle grade novel about a daughter and father finding their way back to each other in the face of their changing family and community.

A SCHNEIDER FAMILY BOOK AWARD HONOR FOR MIDDLE GRADE

Emilia Torres has a wandering mind. It's hard for her to follow along at school, and sometimes she forgets to do what her mom or abuela asks. But she remembers what matters: a time when her family was whole and home made sense. When Dad returns from deployment, Emilia expects that her life will get back to normal. Instead, it unravels.

Dad shuts himself in the back stall of their family's auto shop to work on an old car. Emilia peeks in on him daily, mesmerized by his welder. One day, Dad calls Emilia over. Then, he teaches her how to weld. And over time, flickers of her old dad reappear.

But as Emilia finds a way to repair the relationship with her father at home, her community ruptures with some of her classmates, like her best friend, Gus, at the center of the conflict.

Each Tiny Spark by Pablo Cartaya is a tender story about asking big questions and being brave enough to reckon with the answers.