Candy Bunny Reader

This is the prequel to A Kind of Spark , which I read and reviewed earlier this year! You can read the review here . A Glimmer of Change by Elle McNicoll follows Keedie, who is the older sister of Addie from the first book A Kind of Spark . This story takes place during Keedie's middle school (or secondary school as they call it in Britain) days, and Addie is 6 years old here. Keedie, like Addie, is autistic, and has a history of getting bullied and no one standing up for her. After she defends her best friend Bonnie (who is also autistic) and gets in trouble for it, Keedie decides to start a little business of her own where she defends her classmates who are victims of bullying. She ends up helping a lot of people, but the school (well, mostly the principal/headmaster) doesn't like what she is doing because they claim they already have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying. Keedie thinks that claim is very flimsy, especially when they reward the top bullies (who ha...

A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicholl is a middle grade book about Addie, who is autistic. At school, she learns about how historically, in her small town in Scotland, they used to execute women they considered witches. They weren't actually witches--they were women who were "different". Probably autistic like Addie! She and her new friend Audrey (and with some help from Addie's older sister, Keedie, who is also autistic) all try to raise money to implement a memorial to the victims, but it isn't easy. Addie also has to deal with a bully teacher, a bully in her class named Emily (who is now friends with her ex-friend Jenna) and her other sister Nina, who actually has a good heart but frequently misunderstands Addie and Keedie.  It's a very short and simple story, but it had so many moments that made me emotional! If you didn't already know, I am autistic, too. Addie was so relatable. Overall, reading this was very cathartic to me.  I gave it 5 stars . I want ...

This is the first book of the Mary series. Written by the same authors who wrote the Lady Janies series.  This is a historical fantasy book inspired the the life of Mary, Queen of Scots (our titular Mary) and Francis II (her husband), and other real life historical figures at the time that they worked with or were related to. Mary and Francis are two of our POV characters, still told in third person. There are also some made-up brand new characters related to real historical figures, and one of them is our third POV, Ari. She is the daughter of the famed psychic and apothecary Nostradamus. Ari is not super good at being a psychic, but she is a good apothecary. It takes place in the same world as My Lady Jane , the first book of the Mary series, where everyone is either and Ethian (someone who can turn into an animal) or a Verity (those who cannot turn into animals). The Ethians and the Verities are always in conflicts with each other. In Scotland where our titular Mary is from, a...