Sparkle Valley Philosophy: The Magic of Sparkle Valley

Apr 23
8 min read

Updated: Jun 24

Why the Locket, Journal, Cane, Blue Flower, and Powder of Life matter

One of the questions I hear a lot about Sparkle Valley concerns the magic. What are the rules? How does it work? We talked about the portals and the thin places, but what about the objects like the locket and the cane and the journal? And then of course there’s the famous Powder of Life. Sparkle Valley is full of magic, but how does it all work?

I will try to give you some insight now, but I can tell you right off the bat, Sparkle Valley wasn't built around a traditional magic system.

The first thing to remember is that Sparkle Valley is a world that's shaped primarily by Emily —what’s inside her. So there’s imagination, memories, relationships, fear, hope, longing, belief. Everything that goes into a person. And the magic follows along these forces.

As you know by now, when my daughter was little, we used to play in the garden near our house. There was a woods where a T-Rex lived. We had discovered that certain rose petals grew in the garden that were magic. So whenever we walked on the trail in the woods we would sprinkle the petals behind us to protect us from the T-rex.

And that became part of the ritual of walking through the woods. Of course, then winter arrived and there were no more rose petals. But luckily, the T-Rex would go south for the winter so we didn't have anything to worry about.

The point, of course, isn't whether the petals worked. The point was that the story stayed alive. The imagination adapted and all of a sudden there were new details. The old ones changed and the world responded.

And that’s how Sparkle Valley works.

Just like the rose petals in the garden became objects that would protect us, ideas or forces can become objects in Sparkle Valley.

Love becomes a locket. Memory becomes a journal. Creativity becomes a cane. Longing becomes a blue flower. And then there's the Powder of Life. We'll save that for the end, because that becomes something altogether different.

All these feelings and forces are very real in Sparkle Valley, and therefore the objects possess real power. And that’s why the characters fight over them and try to protect them, or even destroy them.

So let's talk about what types of power they have:

The Locket

For me it all starts with this because it’s about my connection between me and my daughter. In Sparkle Valley it's Abigail and Emily.

And of course, throughout the story, this locket becomes a target. Recall in Book 1 when Ivana wants to feed it to the Beast. Then in Book 2, Hank tries to do the same thing, but ostensibly for a different reason.

But why?

Because what the locket carries is something very important to the Beast—evidence that love actually matters. The Beast wants isolation, forgetting. So when the Beast attacks the locket through his proxies like Hank or the Smortzle, he’s actually attacking the relationships that hold Sparkle Valley together.

Because the locket asks a simple question:

What do you love?

And every character in Sparkle Valley answers that question differently.

The Journal

As I get older, I've been thinking more about the concept behind this one. The Journal represents continuity, the idea that worlds survive because somebody remembers them and carries them forward.

Grandma Doris understands this. Traditions. Stories. Even a garden. It will disappear if nobody watches over it. And that’s the role of the Journal.

It’s a link from the past to the present in the form of a book, and that's why Hank wants to destroy it. The journal keeps the old truth alive. So if you’re trying to shut something down, like. Hank, you’re going to fight this.

If you're thinking about the question that the journal would ask it would be something like, “What do you want to carry forward?” And the Beast’s answer would be “Nothing.”

Our Tree

Let’s stay with “continuity” for a second. I was running through the garden not long ago when I spotted a tree by the stream. This wasn't just any tree, and let me tell you why.

When my daughter was little, we planted a little twig near the stream in the garden. It never grew or anything. It was dead.

But we came back sometime later, looking for it, and of course it was gone. But nearby there was a small tree. My daughter pointed to it and said, "Look that's our tree.”

I knew it wasn't. But from that moment on it became our tree.

We’d check on it. We’d look for the first leaves in spring. We would clean up the roots after a flood, or even water it from the stream if things were dry. Over the years, we would talk about how much it has grown.

And even now, when I’m in the garden, I'll stop by and check on it.

Because that tree is ours. And it's not because that original twig amounted to anything. That disappeared a long time ago. Probably after the first rain. But somehow our tree remained.

It was the story, the continuity. The tree represents the meaning that we carried forward.

The Journal and Identity

Thinking about it philosophically, Derek Parfit makes an interesting point about continuity and identity. For example, what makes you the same person you were 10 years ago, he says, is not anything physical, but rather the connections, the memories, between who you were yesterday and who you are today.

And this is kind of what Sparkle Valley is doing with the Journal. Grandma Doris’s journal isn’t sentimental. But those memories help connect different versions of herself and also to Emily.

Emily, who played in the garden, and the Emily, who grows up in Book 3 are not identical. Of course she’s going to change. And yet they belong in the same story, they’re connected. The danger is that she forgets the parts of herself that made her who she is. And that's where the Journal comes in. There’s continuity between child and adult, past and present. And in the case of Emily, between Sparkle Valley and her world beyond it.

The Cane

This is a more complicated magical object because it's not tied to any moral vision. Remember, the Cane has Frank’s sapphire in it. That means that its power comes from imagination.

And imagination, as we know, is very powerful. It can build worlds, build empathy, and as we’ve already discussed at length, see possibilities that didn't exist before.

And it can be used by anyone. Frank can use it. Abigail can use it. But so can the Smortzle. And the sneaky Beast can exploit it.

That's because creativity is neutral. What matters is the purpose that it serves.

So just as imagination can create a Magic Garden, so it can be used to manipulate or gain power over others (see Smortzle in Book 2).

In this sense, the Cane reveals the truth better than any other object in the trilogy. Because its power amplifies the one who uses it.

So if we want to assign a question to the Cane, it would be: How will you use the power?

Abigail and Frank Needlenose being carried by butterflies

Blue Flower and Butterflies

We've covered this in depth, but as a reminder, the Blue Flower represents longing and wonder, and that feeling that life contains something more. The butterflies are wonder with wings.

So, sticking with our theme, the question that the Blue Flower asks is: “What are you looking for?”

Before moving on to the final magical object, let’s briefly talk about context because I think it’s a good way of getting at their meaning.

For example, why does Hank want to destroy them?

In Book 2, Hank brings the locket and the journal to the Smortzle, so he can throw them into the abyss. Notice his weapon of choice. It’s not an army or weapons or anything physical. He's using a journal and a locket. Memory and relationship. Because these are the things that hold Sparkle Valley together. Recall that Hank believes in control, and that only order will save the world. But he’s wrong. (In the same way that Frank is wrong about unbridled imagination.)

Sparkle Valley survives because of memory and meaning. And the journal and the locket are what protect it. So if Hank were to succeed, the world would lose the very things that make it worth saving.

Powder of Life

This unique powder can make imaginary things real. It stands apart from the other magical objects in Sparkle Valley because all those objects—the Locket, Journal, Cane, Blue Flower, help sustain Sparkle Valley. But the Powder of Life is kind of like a joker. It offers a way out.

And that’s why it’s the central temptation in the trilogy.

Abigail wants more than anything to become Emily's real sister. And the Powder makes that a possibility. But then at the end of Book 3 she refuses.

Why?

Because she chooses Sparkle Valley and Emily’s future over herself.

(See Abigail's Impossible Choice)

And then, importantly, she goes even further and destroys the Powder. That simple act is the moral center of the trilogy. Because the Powder of Life is the one object that is capable of ending the whole conversation.

It offers the perfect ending. But Abigail chooses the harder path. She chooses imagination. So the question the Powder of Life asks is: Would you give up imagination itself to get what you want?

And Abigail's answer is no.

The Real Magic of Sparkle Valley

If you step back you can see there's a pattern here. These objects aren't random fantasy things. They are forces operating inside Emily (and all of us). There’s a whole psychological palette here—love, memory, imagination, wonder, possibility, etc. And collding with them on the flipside—fear, pride, cynicism, despair, etc. And that's exactly where you get the conflict (drama) in Sparkle Valley.

And that's why these objects matter. They're not just fantastical ways of casting spells or getting out of a tight spot. They're meaningful.

They speak to all these important questions:

The Locket asks: Who do you love?

The Journal asks: What do you carry forward?

The Cane asks: How do you use your power?

The Blue Flower asks: What are you seeking?

And then there’s the Powder of Life – the Beast’s final gambit—trying to tempt you to give it all up.

So that's what the magic in Sparkle Valley is all about. It takes all these invisible forces that shape a life and makes them visible in objects you can hold in your hand.