THE LITTLE SPARKLE

The sparkle from a shooting star searches for her purpose in this debut rhyming picture book.

As a star shoots by Earth, a sparkle falls, plummeting into a muddy alley. Each time she tries to get somewhere safe, she finds herself worse off. First, she’s stuck in the rain, then she gets caught in a cat’s fur. The feline takes her to the forest, but it’s no better there. She lands “in the river, / to her deep despair.” After the river mishap, she gets lost in the fog, falls into a hole in a tree, and ends up tumbling into a dumpster. As she’s about to lose hope, she decides she needs a goal or she’ll keep stumbling into misadventures. Inspired by a nearby house’s glow, she enters and finds her purpose: lighting the heart of a little brown-skinned boy. Witek’s phrases scan well, with a mostly consistent rhythmic pattern and solid rhymes throughout. The plot is a little clunky, with travel from the city to the forest, back to the city, and to a rural farmhouse in an order that doesn’t feel natural. The sparkle’s goal—brightening someone’s life—works as a metaphor in ways that the connection to shooting stars doesn’t. But Mikki’s gorgeous skyscape images are eye-catching and worth poring over, which may make readers wish the sparkle spent less time in the trash and fog and more time in the glorious, starry night.

A beautifully illustrated tale that encourages readers to look for the sparkle in everyone.