middle grade Archives - Page 124 of 369

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun
by Tolá Okogwu (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Onyeka has a lot of hair-the kind that makes strangers stop in the street and her peers whisper behind her back. At least she has Cheyenne, her best friend, who couldn’t care less what other people think. Still, Onyeka has always felt insecure about her vibrant curls…until the day Cheyenne almost drowns and Onyeka’s hair takes on a life of its own, inexplicably pulling Cheyenne from the water.

At home, Onyeka’s mother tells her the shocking truth: Onyeka’s psycho-kinetic powers make her a Solari, one of a secret group of people with super powers unique to Nigeria. Her mother quickly whisks her off to the Academy of the Sun, a school in Nigeria where Solari are trained. But Onyeka and her new friends at the academy soon have to put their powers to the test as they find themselves embroiled in a momentous battle between truth and lies…

Snippet: “Onyeka!”

I flinch, a prickle spreading across my scalp as Cheyenne’s impatience voice cuts through the panic rising in me.

“Come on, fam! While it’s still 2025.”

The already stuffy heat of the changing room grows hotter, and the sharp smell of chlorine stings my nose. I feel like throwing up.

“I’m not coming out,” I mutter at the thick wooden door separating us.

A quick shuffle of the feet, followed by a sharp knock. “The pool’s gonna close at this rate,” Cheyenne replies without any sympathy. “Have you got it on?”

Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit
by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Theo Tan doesn’t want a spirit companion. He just wants to be a normal American kid, playing video games, going to conventions, and using cirth pendants to cast his spells like everyone else. But, when his older brother dies, Theo ends up inheriting Jamie’s fox spirit, Kai.

Kai isn’t happy about this either. Theo is nothing like Jamie, and the two of them have never gotten along. But, when they realize the mysterious journal Jamie left Theo is filled with clues and secret codes, it’s clear that something strange was going on with Jamie’s internship at Reapling Corp.

But the only way onto the campus is the highly competitive “Know Your Roots” summer camp program, a celebration of Chinese and Indian cultures designed to help connect students with their heritage. Theo and Kai will have to put aside their differences long enough to honor Jamie’s last wishes, or the mystery he died for will remain unsolved forever…

Snippet: Hours before my alarm is set to go off for the last day of school, my seventeen-year-old brother shakes me awake.

“Wha?” I mumble, my voice thick with sleep.

“Wake up,” Jamie whispers.

“What’s going on?” I say, only it comes out as “Whas gong?”

“Dress warm. We gotta go.” He leaves my room before I can ask anything else, and the urgency in his voice pushes me out of bed.

I shrug on a hoodie, struggle into a pair of jeans, and creep down the stairs, careful to avoid the creaky step. Jamie’s waiting at the door. I look around for Kai, his companion spirit. She’s usually wrapped around his neck, or hiding somewhere to scare me when I’m least expecting it, but after a while, I realize she really isn’t here, and her absence perks me up a little. It’s been so long since I’ve had one-on-one time with Jamie.

Outside, it’s still so dark that I can see people’s cirth pendants glowing under their shirts. Jamie leads me quietly through the back alleys of Chinatown.

“Where are we going, Jamie?” I say, but Jamie just shushes me and walks faster. I gotta say, as far as quality time with your brother goes, this kind of stinks, and I mean that both literally and figuratively.