![]() ![]() This a debut!? Really!? I need a moment to wrap my mind around that. As for Tristan’s further adventures, the sky’s the limit. I envy you reading this book for the first time. In a lifetime full of highlights, I have to say that helping to publish this book is right up there at the top! I felt grateful to Kwame Mbalia for writing this book so that new generations of young readers could grown up with Tristan Strong and get to know the rich stories of West Africa and the African Diaspora. I was delighted to see old friends like Brer Fox, John Henry and Gum Baby in such a fresh, modern, page-turning adventure. Several times, I just got overwhelmed with happiness, thinking about what this book would have meant to many of my students back when I taught middle school. He is someone every kid will relate to, and you will immediately want to be his friend. Tristan is tough but tender, smart but cautious, courageous but insecure. Sentenced to a summer at the grandparents’ farm in rural Alabama, this Chicago city kid is struggling to figure out who he wants to be, and whether his parents (and society) will let him be that person. He has just lost his first fighting bout, disappointing his father and grandfather’s hopes for him carrying on the family legacy. Tristan is struggling with grief after the death of his best friend. Awaiting him are malicious haints, iron monsters, bone ships, flying rafts, burning seas, talking animals, ancient gods, and more.īut for all its great fantasy elements, what I love most about this book is its human side. That would spoil the fun! But when Tristan accidentally punches a hole through our world into the sky of the Midpass, the world of African-American legends, he starts on the most epic of quests. I won’t even try to describe all the incredible adventures facing Tristan Strong in this debut novel. You are about to discover TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY, and your world will never be the same. WHY DIDN’T I KNOW ABOUT THESE AMAZING STORIES SOONER? THIS IS MY MAGIC WORLD TO EXPLORE, AND THESE HEROIC KIDS ARE JUST LIKE ME! A book that left all readers thinking, WOW. Those books are a lot harder to locate, despite that fact that millions of kids would relate to those gods and heroes even more than they would to Hercules and Perseus (sorry, my Greek dudes).Ĭan you imagine what it would be like if you could find a book that wove the whole brilliant, beautiful tapestry of West African and African-American legend into one magical world? A world that made young African-American readers think, YES! THIS IS MY AWESOME MYTHOLOGY. Try finding stories about modern kids who encounter African-American folk legends like High John, John Henry and Brer Rabbit. Try finding great adventures based on Western African gods and heroes like Nyame or Anansi. Greek myths are great! But you can’t swing a gorgon’s head in any bookstore without hitting at least a dozen Greek-myth-inspired books. Can Tristan save this world before he loses more of the things he loves?ĭon’t get me wrong. But bartering with the trickster Anansi always comes at a price. ![]() 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. Tristan finds himself in the middle of a battle that has left black American gods John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. 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 chases after it - is that a doll? - and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a Bottle Tree. But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up in his bedroom and steals Eddie’s journal. 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. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. ![]() 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.
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