Skip to main content

Maya and the Rising Dark

Image
By

By Rena Barron
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020. Fantasy.

Twelve-year-old Maya is certain she is seeing things. It started with the dreams of a man with creamy pale skin and pale violet eyes, then one day she was in math class when all of the color drained out of the classroom for a moment, and then one day Maya's best friends Frankie and Eli are attacked by werehyenas and Maya knows for certain that something is up. What Maya discovers is crazier than even her favorite comic books -- it turns out that the West African folktales and stories that her papa has always told her are more than just stories. Maya's dad is really an orisha named Eleggua -- the most powerful deity and the guardian of the veil between our world and the dark. When he goes missing, the elders in Maya's South Side Chicago neighborhood finally come clean and reveal a big secret -- Maya, Frankie, and Eli are all godlings descended from orisha and it is up to them to restore order to the veil.

This is a rich fantasy novel steeped in West African folklore and grounded in present-day America by a likable and comic-book obsessed protagonist. As Maya, Frankie and Eli endeavor to travel into the dark, avoid the evil darkbringers, and save Eleggua their earnestness brings along a slew of adventures and mistakes made with the best adventures. Fans of Percy Jackson or Rick Riordan Presents books will love this fast-pace novel that centers Black characters in a welcome and refreshing way. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Blood in the Water

By
Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Alice with a Why

By
Alice with a Why By Anna James New York: Penguin, 2026. Fiction. 240 pgs. In 1919, in the aftermath of the first World War, Alyce is living with her grandmother in the English countryside. Her grandmother, also named Alice, tells Alyce (with a y) stories from her childhood adventures in a wonderful land filled with white rabbits and mad hatters. Alyce doesn't really believe the silly stories, she just misses her father who was killed in the war. One day, Alyce receives a mysterious invitation to tea, and subsequently falls into a pond where she is transported to Wonderland. Her grandmother, of course, is that Alice. Alyce is prompted by the Mad Hatter, Dormouse, and March Hare to seek out the Time Being and put an end to the war between the Sun King and the Queen of the Moon. Thus begins Alyce's adventure through Wonderland. I have a certain soft spot for the original story of Alice in Wonderland. It is one of my particular favorites and I often have a hard time reading new int...
Post a Comment
Read more