Showing posts with label Nigeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigeria. Show all posts

Monday, May 23, 2011

Akata Witch

by Nnedi Okorafor, 349p.

Sunny doesn't quite fit into her Nigerian community.  It doesn't help that she's American-born, or that she's albino but there's something else different about her... which her new friends help to coax out of her.

Sunny learns that she is in fact a witch of the Leopard People, along with her new friends who help her along way.  But while Sunny is just learning what is means to be a witch, she and her friends must stop a serial killer targeting kids on their way home from the local school.

While it took me a while to get used to Nnedi Okorafor's writing style, I really grew to love this book.  I especially enjoyed how she was able to convey the cultural tensions between black Americans and Nigerians.  I feel like that was a touch that makes Akata Witch transcend the "strictly teen fiction" and offers lessons of understanding (and awesome female role models) to readers of all ages.