Nic Stone wrote one of my favorite books of 2018, Dear Martin. I have her book Odd One Out and I will be reading it in June, yes I am mad at myself for not getting to it sooner, if you saw my TBR cart you would understand how books get buried and I am telling you, the struggle is real. And I will be getting Jackpot and Dear Justyse soon because if Nic writes it I am going to read it.
This one though, ohhh I ordered it as soon as it was released...I had it one my calendar when the release date was announced. Black Panther is my favorite MCU movie and I love all the strong female characters in it. I mean come one, the warriors of Wakanda are WOMEN!!!! Baddass beautiful strong women!! And I try to read a few middle grade books a year so I can honestly give suggestions to people buying books for young people while at work as a bookseller.
Everything about this book is beautiful. The cover has a great picture of Shuri on it and she just looks like you want her to look, strong and fierce and her smirk!! And there is so much purple, which happens to be my favorite color, even the text is purple!!
Keep in mind this is a middle grade, young reader book, so you will find it in the children's section at a bookstore so there won't be sex or gore or too much violence and what fighting there is won't be graphic. But that being said, the story is AMAZING!!! There is a mystery to be solved about what is happening top the heart-shaped plant that gives whoever is the Black Panther is abilities, why the plant is dying. And Share can see there is a problem but no one wants to take a 13 year old girl seriously and she is frustrated. So using her brain and all the amazing gadgets she works on in her lab, where she is given at least some real responsibilities, like building/creating the Panther suit her brother wears, she and her "best friend" K'Marah, a Dora Milaje in training, are going to stop what ever this is. They seek out and get help from an unexpected ally, which made me cheer out loud.
I think this is more in line with comic cannon and rather than the movies. But that's ok. It is so much fine and a little bit scary. It celebrates girls being smart and capable which is what all kids needs to read, boys and girls. There is the typical young person anger at not being taken seriously but also the warning about not asking for help and the danger it can get you into, but it is not pushy and readers won't feel like they are being preached to about "listen to your elders."
There are some chuckle worthy things, they have a version on a smart phone and tv/movie watching and the names will make you smile.
I don't care how old you are, this is a fun and exciting read. It made me so happy.
(Finished May 13, 2020)
No comments:
Post a Comment