“Lately, it just feels like punch after punch. Gradnma is gone. I’m being forced to go to Ghana for a funeral I don’t want to go to. A monkey literally went out of its way to break into Autumn’s basement and steal Grandma’s dashiki–another L, packaged and hand-delivered straight to me with same-day shipping.”

What I Liked: Kwame’s grandmother has just died, and him and his friend, Autumn, are whisked into an adventure into the Ghanian underworld, Asamando. There, and this is no spoiler as it’s in the front, he meets the spirit of his grandmother, now appearing as a young girl. Adventures, myths, comedy, all that, but Kwame himself is such a likable kid, it was hard not to immediately latch onto his issues.

What I Noticed: There is a little bit of that “writing speak,” (not sure if there’s already a name for this, but it’s where a young protagonist, who is also the narrator, uses words no twelve-year-old would ever use). I’m calling that a litmus test, now, when I read: How many big, unreasonable words does your main character have to use to communicate your point? There’s nothing as egregious as “cumulonimbus,” but when Kwame would describe things, I’d sometimes get taken out of it. Nothing big.

What I Learned: I picked up this book for a few reasons. One, least being, I follow the author on social media and had been waiting for it to come out. Two, I’m always on the lookout for what I like to call “class books,” or books that, should I ever return to teaching, would come with me to the class library.

These books also serve another purpose, like most middle grade books I buy now, in teaching me what literary agents look for and how to best craft my story to fit that mold. When I started following Farmer, he had just been signed, so to see it brought to life, and to know the effort that went into it, is enlightening. And scary.

This would definitely be a class read-aloud book. It flows, the language is fun, and Kwame’s quest is so easy to associate with.

Thanks for reading,

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