Sparkle Valley Philosophy: Emily

Emily is not just the center of Sparkle Valley. She is Sparkle Valley—the creator and the creation. Every part of that world—Abigail’s courage, Ivana’s pride, Gloria’s empathy, Hank’s control, Frank’s chaos—is a fragment of her inner life given form. The Valley is her imagination turned inside out. It’s what her emotions look like when they start to move on their own.

In the beginning, Emily’s drifting. Her world has gotten smaller, sharper, less forgiving. Imagination feels childish. Belief feels embarrassing. So she lets it fade. And as she does, her inner world—Sparkle Valley—fractures.

But Abigail keeps fighting. Sparkle Valley isn’t collapsing because there’s some monster at the gate (although the beast has awakened), it’s because Emily’s letting go of it.

Abigail fights for Emily

Each book is another step in that process.

Book 1 is disconnection: the slow dimming of wonder.

Book 2 is collapse: everything runs like a machine, but nothing feels alive.

Book 3 is reckoning: the choice to believe again, even when belief hurts.

In that sense, Emily echoes Kierkegaard. His “leap of faith” was about the courage to feel something real —to stay open to joy and grief — even when both feel dangerous. That’s Emily’s real courage. Not the act of escaping to Sparkle Valley, but returning to it after she’s forgotten how.

In Book 3, she’s reassembling herself. Abigail is the pulse that brings her back — the part of her that still believes the world can be beautiful. She’s the blue flower, the spark, the yearning for something more that makes Emily human. Ivana is her pride and her warning. The Smortzle, her fear left unchecked. Frank, her joy. Gloria, her empathy. Doris, her memory. The list goes on - Fluffy, Hank, etc, etc. One by one, the pieces return to her, and the Valley begins to breathe again.

And at the end, the beast may be defeated, but it’s never gone. It feeds on numbness and distraction, on the quiet erosion of wonder. When Emily allows herself to imagine again, to feel again, the beast has nothing left to feed on—but it still waits, patient as ever, for her to forget.

Emily hugs Abigail and says goodbye

That’s the heart of Sparkle Valley. Growing up isn’t about abandoning the child you were. It’s about keeping the part that still feels alive.

In the end, Emily learns the one truth that really matters:

Even if it hurts, choose to feel.