Tag Archives: Fantasy

Beasts Made of Night

13+, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Title: Beasts Made of Night

Author: Tochi Onyebuchi

Publisher:  Razorbill

Number of pages: 295

Type of Book: Fiction, adventure, fantasy

Genre: Young Adult

Age: 13+

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Beasts-Made-Night-Tochi-Onyebuchi/dp/0448493918/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Price: $9.99

MY SUMMARY

Taj is the most talented aki in Kos, the best sin-eater in a town where sins are murderous beasts – inisisa – that make sinners sick until they’re drawn out from their bodies by mages and eaten by akis, where sin beasts leave tattoos on the bodies of the aki and drive them to madness before they get to adulthood, where the aki are treated as outcasts in spite of the fact that people depend on them to live, where even the royals depend on the aki they despise to maintain the premium placed on purity. When Taj eats the King’s sin, he becomes involved in a sinister plot that changes his life and threatens to destroy all he holds dear.

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP: This book is a masterpiece. It packs a mean punch with adventure, magic, humour, tragedy, light romance, great pacing, world building and imagery, the use of sensory language, the use of Igbo 😀 , a pseudo Nigerian setting, all in one story. It is YA fantasy at its best. Compared to most books in the same genre, it is short and sweet. I got it because it came highly recommended as mentor text for a novel I’m working on. I love it because it didn’t disappoint at all. In fact, it surpassed expectations.

Tochi is gifted with writing amazing scenes. This gift is pronounced in the action scenes in the book. He uses sensory language and amazing pacing to create scenes which suck you in and make you feel like they’re unfolding right before your eyes. I cannot rave fully about this book without giving spoilers. Spoiler alert: The arashi’s appearance was nothing short of MAGNIFICENT! I had goosebumps! I put the book down, shouted, picked it up and continued reading. 😀

Then the ending, oh my God, the ending!!! It ended with a cliff hanger. He got me!

Finally, the absolute best part of all of this: There’s more to come! Crown of Thunder, the sequel is available online.  

Here’s a paragraph where we’re introduced to our very first sin-beast:

I don’t even hear the doors close behind me, because the sin-beast rears up and roars in my face. I stare up at a massive lion, one of the biggest I’ve seen. The inisisa is formed of shadows so dark that it seems to suck all the light out of the room, even taking the glow from the daga in my hand. Its claws, inky tendrils of black, click against the floor tiles as it settles back on its enormous haunches. Sin made into living, breathing flesh by dark magic.

DOWN: It had a bit of the sagging middle syndrome. There was a brief lull in the story somewhere in the middle (or should I say the beginning of the middle😀 where I found myself struggling to avoid skipping whole paragraphs. I eventually understood why that section was necessary but it was much slower than the other sections of the book.

RATING

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

HAVE FUN WITH THIS BOOK

  1. Read an excerpt here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/545186/beasts-made-of-night-by-tochi-onyebuchi/9780448493916/excerpt

CHALLENGE: Beasts Made of Night 

CREATE (WRITE a Story/Poem OR DRAW)

  1. Read the excerpt using the link above, then read the excerpt of Children of Blood and Bone in this post and compare the literary devices used by both writers.

Send your answers to ugochinyelu.anidi@gmail.com.

Entry requirements: Entrants must be within the 13+ age range. The first correct entry will be announced on this page and will win a copy of this book.

Answers must be submitted before 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 22nd 2020.

Next Book of the Week:

THE ADVENTURES OF OBI AND TITI: QUEEN IDIA’S MASK by O. T Begho

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Where The Wild Things Are

AGES 4 - 8, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , ,

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Title: Where The Wild Things Are

Author: Maurice Sendak

Publisher: Red Fox Books

Number of pages: 48

Type of Book: Fiction; Fantasy

Age: 4 – 8

Buy it here: (Instagram) @tams_ink; https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wild-Things-Maurice-Sendak/dp/0064431789/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519811649&sr=1-1&keywords=where+the+wild+things+are

Price: N2650; $6.36

MY SUMMARY

“Wild thing!”, Max’s mother called him one night after he put on a wolf’s costume and a king’s crown and tried to wreak havoc at home with first, a hammer and then, a fork. Sent to his bedroom without dinner, he imagined himself in an exciting new place filled with wild things, with no mothers, no rules and lots of time to play. He was even crowned the King of the wild things! And all seemed well with the world until …

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP:

  1. It’s a classic, first published in 1963.
  2. Oh the places you’ll go … this time, not when you read but when you have an overactive imagination. This book celebrates one of the joys of most childhoods, an active imagination.
  3. Maurice uses vibrant illustrations to turn Max’s bedroom first into a forest and then a forest leading to an ocean and then a whole new world!

DOWN: Monsters! Monsters and more Monsters! Images of huge, yellow-eyed, horned creatures with long sharp teeth and longer sharper claws are splashed generously across the pages of this book. They are stuff childhood nightmares are made of. My almost 4-year-old sat quietly through the reading, no comments, no questions, just silence. We won’t be reading this again, at least not in the near future. Not recommended for night time reading.

RATING

4 Stars

HAVE FUN WITH THIS BOOK

  1. Watch a video here:

 CHALLENGE: Where the Wild Things Are

CREATE (WRITE a Story/Poem OR DRAW)

Watch the video above, then …

  1. List 3 characters in the book (3 – 5 year olds)
  2. List three characters in the book starting with the letter M. Find them in the crossword puzzle below (6 – 8 year olds)
Z D C Y H N M K S G J B X
V N O H G O N R S R M N O
K B A R E D E E E G E A N
H B G M O T H E R L U E N
I W B U S E A K R R E I T
O D S N A B A G N X A M S
O C O K W E T E G I D B A
L M S S A E L P R U P L F

Send your answers to ugochinyelu.anidi@gmail.com

Entry requirements: Entrants must be within the 4 – 8 age range. The first correct entry will be announced on this page and will win a copy of this book.

Answers must be submitted before 12:00am on Friday, March 2nd 2018.

Next Book of the Week:

ANIKE ELEKO by Sandra Joubeaud

 

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photo credit: amazon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Pan

AGES 8 - 12, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

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Title: Peter Pan

Author: J. M. Barrie

Publisher: Bendon Classics/Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Number of pages: 176/208

Type of Book: Classic, Fiction

Age: 8+

Buy it here: ; https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Pan-Scribner-Illustrated-Classic/dp/0689830785/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481017791&sr=1-5&keywords=peter+pan&refinements=p_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A2579001011 free download here (unabridged version for older readers): https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/literature/books_in_PDF/1904%20Peter%20Pan.pdf

Price: $6:94

MY SUMMARY

This abridged version shows the most important bits and quotes from the original story of Peter Pan, a little boy who refused to grow up. Peter Pan leads the three Darling children, Wendy, Michael and John on the adventure of a life time. They fly off through the bedroom window in their London home to the magical land of Neverland where they meet pirates, mermaids, fairies, Indians and other creatures. Read the book to enjoy the sights and sounds of Neverland and to meet the Darling children and their new friends, Peter Pan, the lost boys, Tinkerbell and Tiger Lily.

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP: A perfect adventure story for boys and girls! The major highlight was Tinkerbell. I laughed at her mischief and jealousy and rudeness but most importantly, every time she misbehaved, she was called out on it, showing children that bad behaviour should not be accepted. Other highlights were the tick-tocking crocodile, human shadows made of cloth, nightlights that yawn and sleep.

This book is for children who believe in a bit of magic! (Not the Nigerian juju, kind, but the kind that makes them feel like the world is a beautiful happy place, that nothing terrible can happen to them, that everyone gets a happily ever after and that they are invincible!)

And really, every child needs a bit of magic!

DOWN: As with most classics, the unabridged version might be a bit too much for children.

RATING

5 Stars 

TRIVIA

  1. Who was the Nana, the nanny? A dog living with the Darlings and charged with taking care of the Darling children.
  2. The beautiful and brave warrior princess of the Indians? Tiger Lily.
  3. Who were the lost boys? They were a group of six boys who became citizens of Neverland because they had fallen out of their baby carriages and were not claimed by their parents.
  4. Captain Hook had a funny relationship with this gigantic animal? The tick-tocking crocodile. It ate Captain Hook’s arm, thought it tasted really good and followed him around to try to eat the rest of him.
  5. How did the beings on the island get the time? They stayed close to the tick-tocking crocodile till the clock struck the hour!

Learn more about Peter Pan here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan

CHALLENGE: Peter Pan

CREATE (WRITE a Story/Poem OR DRAW)

  1. Write a story within a story. (600 words) (8 – 9 year olds)

OR

  1. Draw a picture of the pirates using only these details:

“A more mean looking gang never existed. Here is Cecco with his great strong arms. Now comes Bill Jukes who wears one hundred tattoos. Cookson, Gentleman Starkey and Skylights come next, singing and growling into the darkness. The Irish boatswain Smee and the laughing Alf Mason are sharing a pipe and looking behind every tree for the lost boys. Let us not forget Noodler whose hands were fixed on backward and who is as mean as any of the band. In the middle of them the blackest and largest of the group, is James Hook. He was seated in a chariot drawn by his men. Instead of a right hand he had the iron hook. In person, he was ghostly white, and an evil air hung about him like a mist. His hair was dressed in long thick curls, which at a distance looked like black snakes that wriggled around his handsome face. His eyes were a dancing blue and had a certain sadness – except when he was plunging his hook into; and then, two red spots appeared in his eyes that lit them up horribly.”

Culled from the Peter Pan by J.M Barrie, adapted by Wendi Lowery, pg. 71.

  1. Write an 800-word story titled ‘The Adventures of Eki in the Benin Forest’ (10-12 year olds)

OR

  1. Draw a picture of the pirates using only these details:

“A more mean looking gang never existed. Here is Cecco with his great strong arms. Now comes Bill Jukes who wears one hundred tattoos. Cookson, Gentleman Starkey and Skylights come next, singing and growling into the darkness. The Irish boatswain Smee and the laughing Alf Mason are sharing a pipe and looking behind every tree for the lost boys. Let us not forget Noodler whose hands were fixed on backward and who is as mean as any of the band. In the middle of them the blackest and largest of the group, is James Hook. He was seated in a chariot drawn by his men. Instead of a right hand he had the iron hook. In person, he was ghostly white, and an evil air hung about him like a mist. His hair was dressed in long thick curls, which at a distance looked like black snakes that wriggled around his handsome face. His eyes were a dancing blue and had a certain sadness – except when he was plunging his hook into; and then, two red spots appeared in his eyes that lit them up horribly.”

Culled from the Peter Pan by J.M Barrie, adapted by Wendi Lowery, pg. 71.

Send your answers to ugochinyelu.anidi@gmail.com

Entry requirements: Entrants must be within the 8-12 age range. The first correct entry will be announced on this page and will win a copy of this book.

Answers must be submitted before 12:00am on Sunday, December 11th 2016.

Next Book of the Week:

MIDDLE SCHOOL: ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN by James Patterson

 

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photo credit: Amazon.com

Malaika’s Magical Kiosk

AGES 4 - 8, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Title: Malaika’s Magical Kiosk

Author: Shaleen Keshvjee-Dulam

Publisher: Mango Books, an imprint of Quramo Publishing

Number of pages: 21

Type of Book: Fiction; African

Age: 4 – 8

Buy it here: http://www.quramo.com/content/malaikas-magical-kiosk-0; Kindle edition: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Malaikas-Magical-Kiosk-Shaleen-Keshavjee-Gulam-ebook/dp/B01KV6VX5I;  Terra Kulture, 1376 Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island Lagos.

Price: N1200; 3.66GBP; N1300

MY SUMMARY

Michelle and her sister Wanjiku lived in small village in Kenya filled with happy people. That year, the rains refused to come, the crops dried out and everyone was scared they wouldn’t have enough food to eat. The adults became grumpy and mean people who barely spoke and the little children stopped laughing. Things changed one day when a mysterious woman named Malaika – and her kiosk – appeared in the village market. Malaika gave all the things in her kiosk to the villagers for free, she made grouchy Mrs. Karanja smile and turned Mrs. Karuki’s brown teeth sparkling white. Everyone loved her. Read the book to find out who the mysterious Malaika was and what she did to the girls and their small village.

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP: This book was shortlisted for the Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Books in 2014, one of the best prizes for African Kid’s Lit! I was really excited when I got a copy and it didn’t disappoint. It had a feel good ending, the type that keeps a small smile on your face hours after you’ve read it. The illustrations were good too. I have a thing for illustrations especially in picture books, they have to be perfect. So much depends on them. This book had good illustrations. Young readers will gain a sneak peek of rural living in Kenya and will learn a word or two in Swahili. It also features a small glossary for the Swahili words used in the book.

DOWN: None.

RATING

4 Stars

TRIVIA

  1. “Jambo” “Habari” are forms of greeting in Swahili, the language spoken by Malaika and the girls in this book and by a lot of East Africans especially Kenyans.

HAVE FUN WITH THIS BOOK

  • Watch the book trailer here:

CHALLENGE: Malaika’s Magical Kiosk

 

CREATE (WRITE a Story/Poem OR DRAW)

  1. List 5 items on Malaika’s body and find the items in the grid below (6-8 year olds)
Z D C Y H N M K O D G J K B X
V G O F T S J T O E G L E N O
G H W G T D R E S S 1 I I A E
H J R H T R W E T O E P N I N
Y U I A E A R R I N G S A K A
I F E H S O L A C R A T W I T
O F S J A V S K E T C I O U S
O C N X D E J E W E L C G N A
L X S B A N G L E S A K A L F
I N O V S A M E X T A S E A G
  1. Draw and colour Malaika and a magical kiosk. (4-5 year olds)

Send your answers to ugochinyelu.anidi@gmail.com

Entry requirements: Entrants must be within the 4 – 8 age range. The first correct entry will be announced on this page and will win a copy of this book.

Answers must be submitted before 12:00am on Wednesday, December 7th 2016.

Next Book of the Week:

THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER by The Brothers Grimm

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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

AGES 8 - 12, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Author: C. S. Lewis

Publisher: Harper Collins

Number of pages: 768

Type of Book: Classic, Fiction

Age: 8+

Available here: https://www.jumia.com.ng/jumia-dvds-the-chronicles-of-narnia-2919086.html; http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Narnia-C-S-Lewis/dp/0061969052/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453795173&sr=1-2&keywords=chronicles+of+narnia&refinements=p_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A2579001011; https://b2dbuntu.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/thechroniclesofnarnia.pdf

Price: N2,040; $11.48; Free download

MY SUMMARY

Imagine you walked into a wardrobe filled with jackets, what would you most likely meet at the end of the wardrobe? A wooden or concrete wall in your face! This was not the case with the Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. They walked through a wardrobe (The WARDROBE) of jackets into a fantasy world, Narnia, filled with talking animals (beavers, wolves, etc.), wish-granting White Stags, half-human, half-animal beings (fauns) and a beautiful but terribly wicked witch (The WITCH) that wanted to control that world for ever. It is up to the Pevensie children to save Narnia with the help of Aslan (The LION) and all the other ‘good’ Narnians.

The first of seven books in a series, it is guaranteed to keep you glued to every page until the last. A must read for all book worms, pint-sized and otherwise!

NB: There’s a great debate about the order in which the Narnian books should be read. I prefer the order of publication, just because; it is said that C.S. Lewis preferred the order in Narnia time. Who knows? Please feel free to read the books in any order, as long as you read them 🙂

The Order of Publication: 1) The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, 2) Prince Caspian, 3) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 4) The Silver Chair, 5) The Horse and His Boy, 6) The Magician’s Nephew, and 7) The Last Battle

or

The Order in Narnian Time: 1) The Magician’s Nephew, 2) The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, 3) The Horse and His Boy, 4) Prince Caspian, 4) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 6) The Silver Chair, and 7) The Last Battle

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP: I will say one thing for C. S. Lewis, he has a way with words!! He sucks you into his story world until you are so engrossed that the actual world around you melts away until you put his book down. His ability to engage the senses is epic! The description of the meal at the Beaver’s made me quite hungry. In a detailed and quirky manner reminiscent of Roald Dahl, he brings his characters to life with words that make you feel like you can see them through his eyes. See particularly his description of the White Witch and Mr. Tomnus the faun.

The book also explores the themes of good v. evil, friendship, courage and trust. Without being didactic, it shows readers the consequences of good and evil/bad actions.

DOWN: None

RATING

4.5 Stars 

TRIVIA

  1. Tumnus, the faun, thought Lucy was a …………….. from the faraway land of …………. ? Daughter of Eve; Spare Oom (really Spare room)
  2. The gifts given to the kids by Father Christmas? Peter: a silver shield and a sword with a gold hilt, a sheath and a sword belt; Susan: A bow, a quiver full of arrows and a little ivory horn; Lucy: a little bottle with a potion for healing wounds and a little dagger.
  3. The first creature Lucy met in Narnia? Tumnus, the faun. He was half man and half goat.
  4. Lucy was away in Narnia for hours having tea with Mr. Tumnus but when she got back to the old house through the wardrobe, she realized she had been gone for ………? Less than a minute
  5. Why did the wicked White Witch want the four kids? To kill them in order to prevent the Prophecy from coming to pass. The Prophecy: When two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sit on the four thrones at Cair Paravel, that would be the end of the life and reign of the White Witch.
  6. The stone statues Edmund saw when he entered the White Witch’s Castle? They were creatures the wicked witch had turned to stone. There were satyrs, wolves, bears, foxes, female-like tree spirits, a centaur, a winged horse, a dragon, a giant and a faun which he thought might be Mr. Tumnus.

Read an excerpt here: https://www.narnia.com/us/books/ebook/the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe/9780061974151

Read the book here: https://b2dbuntu.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/thechroniclesofnarnia.pdf

News about the Narnia books here: https://www.narnia.com/us/news-extras/narnia-news

CHALLENGE: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

CREATE (WRITE a Story/Poem OR DRAW)

  1. Imagine you discovered a secret passage into another world. In 600 words, describe the world and the people in it.

OR

  1. Draw a picture of the Mr. Tumnus, the faun using the details below:

“He carried over his head an umbrella, white with snow. From the waist upwards he was like a man, but his legs were shaped like a goat’s (the hair on them was glossy black) and instead of feet he had goat’s hoofs. He also had a tail, but Lucy did not notice this at first because it was neatly caught up over the arm that held the umbrella so as to keep it from trailing in the snow. He had a red woolen muffler round his neck and his skin was rather reddish too. He had a strange, but pleasant little face with a short pointed beard and curly hair, and out of the hair there stuck two horns, one on each side of his forehead. One of his hands, as I have said, held the umbrella: in the other arm he carried several brown paper parcels.”

Excerpt from: C. S. Lewis. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”

OR

  1. Write a 600-word short story with any of the following themes: Courage OR Friendship

Send your answers to ugochinyelu.anidi@gmail.com

Entry requirements: Entrants must be within the 8-12 age range. The first correct entry will be announced on this page and will win a copy of this book.

Answers must be submitted before 12:00am on Sunday, January 31st, 2016.

Next Book of the Week:

YETUNDE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A YORUBA GIRL IN LONDON by Ms. Segilola Salami

 

 

 

 

 

 

Didi Kanu and the Singing Dwarfs of the North

AGES 8 - 12, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Title: Didi Kanu and the Singing Dwarfs of the North

Author: Jude Idada

Publisher: Creoternity Books

Number of pages: 252

Type of Book: Fantasy, Fiction; African

Age: 10+

Available here: http://www.amazon.com/Singing-Dwarfs-North-Adventures-Volume/dp/1508745900

Price: $10.99

MY SUMMARY

Didi was a dreamer. An 8-year-old girl born into a very poor family in Eastern Nigeria and the youngest of five children, she desperately wanted to go to school almost as much as she wanted to visit one of the places she had heard about in Ede’s stories: the mountainous lands of the North. Didi wanted to see the singing dwarfs. Her chance to achieve both dreams came when Uncle Ikenna came to the village from Lagos and took Didi back with him. However, bad luck, or was it fate, knocked on her door when one day, Uncle Ikenna had an accident, which sent him into a coma. Only a song by Mei Kalala, a singing dwarf of the North can save Uncle Ikenna’s life. Didi had a few days to journey to the mountainous lands of the North to find the singing dwarfs and learn the song. Read the book to follow Didi on her journey to the North and find out whether she passed Mei Kalala’s test and got back to Lagos in time to save Uncle Ikenna.

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP: The major highlight of this book was its genre: African magical realism, a genre that isn’t very common in the world today. I would recommend for voracious readers, adult and child alike. This book is not for beginning readers or children who are just learning to love books.

DOWN: It was a bit too descriptive and rather slow-paced. It had quite a few grammatical errors that should have been picked up by a discerning eye.

RATING

3 Stars 

TRIVIA

  1. Who were the singing dwarfs of the North? They were bush babies that lived in the mountainous lands in the North.  
  2. Mei Kalala told Didi that this would happen to her if she told a lie after drinking of the Nectar of Unbreakable Oaths? She would turn into a Pillar of Ash on the Plains of Sorrows!
  3. Ede? The village storyteller. He told stories of times in the past when the village was ruled by magic.
  4. What were the ingots and grengots? They were half-humans that lived in banana trees and had tails for legs. Ingots made the bananas ripe, and protected them from the grengots who liked to eat them. The grengots could make people mad by jumping into their nostrils and living in their heads!
  5. Who was Big Aunty? Aunty Nonye’s stepmother.
  6. “ … it was something that looked like an elephant… had what looked like human arms. But they bulged with muscles so big that they looked like large tubers of yam stuck to the arm. In one arm, there was a big club with a humongous head from which jutted out sharp objects … it had what seemed like maggots falling out of it… there was pus coming out from other parts of it. There was hair over what looked like its chest and in that mass of hair, creatures that looked like mice scurried about. But these mice had extra-long snouts.’ The Keeper of Searcher’s Gates.

Read an excerpt here http://www.amazon.com/Singing-Dwarfs-North-Adventures-Volume/dp/1508745900

CHALLENGE: Didi Kanu and the Singing Dwarfs of the North

CREATE (WRITE a Story/Poem OR DRAW)

  1. What is Magical Realism? Write a short 400-word essay. Give examples using books and movies.

OR

  1. Draw a picture of the ‘Big Aunty’ using the details below.

“Big Aunty’s arms were huge and her stomach bulged. Her neck was as thick as a tree trunk and her legs were like two pillars, the kind that held up the yam barns back in the village. Her chest kept rising and falling making her breasts look like two oversized pawpaws … Big Aunty’s breath came out like the puff of the blacksmith’s oven back in Obosi. She was like an elephant dressed in a green wrapper and green blouse. Her head was wrapped in a green head-tie. … she had Half Past Four eyes.”

Send your answers to ugochinyelu.anidi@gmail.com

Entry requirements: Entrants must be within the 10-12 age range. The first correct entry will be announced on this page and will win a copy of this book.

Answers must be submitted before 12:00am on Sunday, January 24th 2016

Next Book of the Week:

CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE by C.S. Lewis

 

 

 

Zahrah the Windseeker

AGES 8 - 12, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Title: Zahrah the Windseeker

Author: Nnedi Okoroafor-Mbachu

Publisher: Farafina Books/ HMH Books for Young Readers

Number of pages: 320/308

Type of Book: Fantasy, Fiction; African

Age: 10+

Available here: http://www.konga.com/farafina-zahrah-the-wind-seeker-1080068; http://www.amazon.com/Zahrah-Windseeker-Nnedi-Okorafor-Mbachu/dp/0547020287

Price: N500; $7.51

MY SUMMARY

Zahrah is a 13-year-old girl born with dadalocks in a kingdom where people with dadalocks are looked upon as strange. She is quiet, shy, constantly bullied and afraid of heights. All these change when one night, Zahrah finds herself floating off her bed. Her quest for knowledge eventually leads her and her best friend Dari, into the Forbidden Greeny Jungle where Dari is bitten by a war snake whose venom sends him into a coma. Only the serum from an unfertilized elgort egg can save Dari’s life. Zahrah has four weeks to enter the depths of the Forbidden Greeny Jungle to find and steal an unfertilized egg from an elgort, the fastest, most vicious animal in the Jungle.

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP: Everything!! Again, Nnedi kept me up till 4am. I read this book some seven years ago and it made a huge impression on me!! It was a pleasure to read again! And I will definitely read it some more in the future! Nnedi Okoroafor’s imagination is out of this world. Her use of language is fantastic! Her story world is described in such detail that the reader is easily sucked into it! Zahrah the Windseeker is African Magical realism at its best!!! The plot, the characters were so well fleshed out but the highlight of the book for me: The Setting!!

The book is set in the Ooni Kingdom, a kingdom that is dominated by plants. The houses are made of plants, the towers and sky scrapers as well, the computers are plants, the currency of the day: flowers, even the medical equipment (heart monitors) are plants. Other highlights were the Dark Market (with the drawing baboons, live vultures, fortune-tellers, personal pepper seeds, dog-sized toads, etc.) and the Forbidden Greeny Jungle (with the flesh-eating plants, the Speculating Speckled Frog: a shiny pink frog with gold speckles and the ability to answer all questions, a human-sized scorpion with a poisoned whip for a tail, talking panthers, a two-headed green tortoise the size of a large car, thieving bush cows, etc.)

One of my best lines from the book: ‘Fear landed on my shoulder like a heavy bloodsucking masquerade’ Such imagery!

DOWN: None

RATING

5 Stars

 TRIVIA

  1. Who were the Windseekers? They were dada-born people born with the ability to fly.  
  2. How did Zahrah escape the giant scorpion and its poisoned whip? The enormous car-sized, two-headed tortoise with eyes as big as dinner plates appeared out of nowhere, smashed the scorpion to death and feasted on its body!
  3. What are elgorts? Elgorts are described as the ultimate killing machines. With enormous trunks lined with sharp teeth and the ability to fell whole trees while in motion and eat their prey (even humans) in three crunches, they are the fastest and deadliest animals in the Forbidden Greeny Jungle.
  4. Why did people grow their own personal peppers? To become socially spicy: more attractive and more popular.
  5. The first man Zahrah met when she went to the Dark Market? A one-eyed man with cornrows, selling live vultures.
  6. “ … From the information you typed into me, you are a thirteen-year-old girl who seeks to find an unfertilized elgort egg for your friend? … Then you are truly mad” Who/What said this? Zahrah’s talking compass.

Read an excerpt here http://www.africanwriter.com/zahrah-the-windseeker-an-excerpt-from-the-nnedi-okorafor-novel/

CHALLENGE: Zahrah the Windseeker

CREATE (WRITE a Story/Poem OR DRAW)

  1. What is Nsibidi? Write a short 400-word essay

OR

  1. Draw a picture of the Dark Market using the details in Chapter 4 of the Book.

OR

  1. Write a poem on ‘Bullying’.

Send your answers to ugochinyelu.anidi@gmail.com

Entry requirements: Entrants must be within the 10-12 age range. The first correct entry will be announced on this page and will win a copy of this book and a copy of ‘Akata Witch’ by the same author.

Answers must be submitted before 12:00am on Tuesday, November 17th 2015

Next Book of the Week:

THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells

Akata Witch/What Sunny Saw in the Flames

AGES 8 - 12, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , ,

akatawitch

sunny_small_large

Title: Akata Witch also ‘What Sunny Saw in the Flames’

Author: Nnedi Okoroafor

Publisher: Cassava Republic Press

Age: 10+

Number of pages: 229

Available here: http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/collections/new-books/products/what-sunny-saw-in-the-flames; http://www.amazon.com/Akata-Witch-Nnedi-Okorafor/dp/0670011967

Price: N 800; $11.72

MY THOUGHTS

Akata Witch is a GREAT BOOK, one that I’d read again and again. It’s about an Igbo girl, Sunny who moved back to Nigeria from the US and discovered that she could see into the future. This marked the beginning of her journey into the world of the Leopard People. Sunny discovered she had magical powers, made friends with Orlu, Chi Chi and Sasha and trained as part of a team to stop Black Hat Otokoto and Ekwensu from destroying the world.

Thumbs Up: The river creature, Leopard Knocks (the West African Headquarters for the Leopard People), the mentors (Anatov, Kehinde, Taiwo and Sugar Cream) as well as the explosive tainted pepper soup, chittim, tungwa, walking books, spirit faces and wasp artists make this book a fascinating read. Truly unputdownable!

Thumbs Down: It ended abruptly. I had waited so long for the show down, you know, the ‘last fight’ that I was quite disappointed that the fight with Ekwensu was over in seconds.

Rating: Five Stars

AKATA WITCH TRIVIA

  1. In the last chapter, Sunny’s wasp artist built a man that looked like ………
  2. What currency did the Leopard people use?
  3. How did Sunny give Jibaku a good scare?
  4. What would happen if you put the following ingredients in the Tainted Pepper Soup? a. small tomatoes b. chicken c. chicken magi cubes d. not perfectly round onions
  5. What was Sunny’s Mentor’s called?
  6. What exploded over Sunny’s head in Leopard Knocks?
  7. What was the title of the slim, green book with tiny black legs, that taught Sunny lots of things about the Leopard people?

ANSWERS

  1. BLACK HAT OTOKOTO
  2. CHITTIM
  3. SHE SHOWED JIBAKU HER SPIRIT FACE
  4. THE FINISHED SOUP WILL EXPLODE WITHIN AN HOUR!
  5. SUGAR CREAM
  6. TUNGWA: A floating bag of warm wet air containing teeth, bone, red chunks of raw, rotten meat and tufts of hair. Yuck!
  7. FAST FACTS FOR FREE AGENTS

Read an excerpt from the book here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0103/7312/files/Pages_from_WSSITFLayoutFinal_V4_P191.pdf?3812

Visit its website here: https://aobermeier629.wordpress.com

Next Book of the Week (06/May/2015 – 12/May/2015):

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY by Roald Dahl

 

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photo credit: amazon.com; cassavarepublic.biz