I Spark Like Lightning

A Realistic and Accessible Portrayal of a Child Living with Epilepsy

In I Spark Like Lightning, 8-year-old Jen explains what it’s like to live with epilepsy. Most of the time, her brain is full of electricity that sends signals to tell her body what to do. But sometimes, the signals get mixed up, like a lightning storm, and she has seizures. They can happen any time—at home, during ballet class, even at the beach. It’s hard sometimes, but there are a lot of people who love her and help keep her safe. With the help of her family, friends, and her service dog, Hamilton, Jen manages her epilepsy and appreciates the lightning as part of who she is.

• Offers an honest portrayal of life with epilepsy, what it’s like to experience seizures, and how kids manage it
• Celebrates disability joy and offers an empowering self-representation for disabled kids
• Helps children develop empathy and understanding with first-person storytelling from a child’s perspective
• Centers disabled voices by drawing on the author’s experience with epilepsy

The Disability Books for Kids series explores visible and invisible disability in the first person, as seen through the eyes of children and written from lived experience. The series builds allyship, challenges ableism, and celebrates difference, empowering and educating all readers. Each book includes an author’s note to the reader.