Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Kwame Mbalia's epic fantasy,
a middle grade American Gods set in a richly-imagined world populated
with African American folk heroes and West African gods.
*"Mbalia expertly weaves a meaningful **portrayal of family and
community with folklore, myth, and history--including the legacy of the
slave trade--creating a fast-paced, heroic series starter."--Publishers
Weekly (starred review)
**
Seventh grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he
failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident
together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote
stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his
grandparents' farm in Alabama, where he's being sent to heal from the
tragedy.
But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up in his bedroom
and steals Eddie's notebook. Tristan chases after it--is that a
doll?--and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a Bottle Tree. In
a last attempt to wrestle the journal out of the creature's hands,
Tristan punches the tree, accidentally ripping open a chasm into the
MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and
iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world.
Tristan finds himself in the middle of a battle that has left Black
American folk heroes John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. In order to
get back home, Tristan and these new allies will need to entice the god
Anansi, the Weaver, to come out of hiding and seal the hole in the sky.
But bartering with the trickster Anansi always comes at a price. Can
Tristan save this world before he loses more of the things he loves?
Winner of a Coretta Scott King Author Honor
Endorsed by Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians,
soon to be a series on Disney+.
