Fantasy/Sci-fi and Mystery/Adventure

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky



Mbalia, Kwame. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. Los Angeles, CA, Disney-Hyperion, 2020.

    This book is about a boy named Tristan Strong who can change the world around him through the stories he tells. After the death of his best friend, Tristan goes to spend time with his family in Alabama but soon gets sent to a magical realm where African American folktales come to life. Admittedly, I had to stop this one about halfway through. I thought Gum Baby was too annoying and it ruined the book for me. I do appreciate how Mbalia incorporates folktales from Black culture, however. Seeing figures like John Henry and Br'er Rabbit and Tristan being a descendant from Anansi was pretty interesting to read. While the author uses characters from folktales, the author creates Alke, the world Tristan gets sent to at his grandparents' farm. 

The Book of Boy

  

Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. The Book of Boy. Illustrated by Ian Schoenherr, New York, NY, Greenwillow Books, 2018.
    
    This book is about an angel named Boy who goes on an adventure with a pilgrim named Secundus. Secundus is a man who escaped from hell to steal the pieces of St. Peter to get to heaven while Boy is following along to become a real boy. Despite the fantasy elements of Boy being born as an angel, the book is based on reality. It's explained in the author's note that in 1350 when the book takes place, there was a holy pilgrimage to Rome. The fascinating part of the text was the language choice. There were some curse words such as "piss" and "bitch" but it felt that the word choice was appropriate for the time the story takes place. The adventure aspect of the story was also accurate for the time as the pair were on foot, on horseback, and on a ship, to get to Rome from France within a couple months. When I was discussing the book with friends I told them to imagine saying loudly that a book is inappropriate for children because of the curse words and then putting it within reach of children with the intention of having them read it and feel sneaky while doing it. 

Comments

  1. Jen CJune 23, 2024 at 10:44 AM

    Professional reviewers sometimes have to review books they don't love. It's part of the skill building to be able to evaluate on the strengths and opportunities to make a recommendation for readers.

    These could both use some elaboration to build to full reviews.

    ReplyDelete

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