Copyright

Copyright © 2019 by Sarah Beth Durst

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

Clarion Books is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

hmhbooks.com

Cover illustration © 2019 by Brandon Dorman

Cover design by Sharismar Rodriguez

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Names: Durst, Sarah Beth, author.

Title: Spark / Sarah Beth Durst.

Description: Boston ; New York : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2019] | Summary: Naturally quiet since birth, Mina and her stormbeast, Pixit, lead others like themselves in defying authority and attempting to spread the truth that Alorria's idyllic weather comes at a steep cost.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018035180

Subjects: | CYAC: Quietude—Fiction. | Dragons—Fiction. | Weather—Fiction. | Fantasy. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic. | JUVENILE FICTION / Girls & Women. | JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / Mythical. | JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General.

Classification: LCC PZ7.D93436 Sp 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

ISBN: 978-1-328-97342-9 hardcover

ISBN: 978-0-358-20638-5 paperback

eISBN 978-1-328-63988-2
v2.0620

Dedication

For Alyssa, Adam, Jonah, and Brianna

Chapter
One

Mina was quiet.

Every morning, she liked to tuck herself into the corner of their farmhouse kitchen and watch her family storm through: Papa singing off-key as he poured sugar into the pot of oats, Mother yelling at him to add less sugar, Papa yelling back cheerfully that he could add more but not less because he was just that sweet, her older brother, Gaton, stomping in to say he couldn’t find his socks, Papa joking that he’d added them to the morning oats, and the twins waddling in with Gaton’s socks on their hands like puppets.

And every morning, after her family had whirled tornado-like into the kitchen, Papa would bellow, “Mina! Mina? Is Mina awake? Anyone seen Mina?”

Giggling, the twins would wave their sock puppets at the corner where she perched quietly on her favorite chair.

He’d clap his hands to his bearded cheeks dramatically, making the twins giggle even harder. “I thought that was a shadow! No one eats until my little shadow eats.” And then Papa would scoop the biggest, sugariest, best scoop of oatmeal into a bowl and give it to Mina before Gaton could inhale the rest and before the twins could spill any of it on the floor.

“Love you, Papa,” she’d say.

“Love you, Mina,” he’d say, and wink.