Kwame Crashes the Underworld

Gr 3-7–North Carolinian Kwame Powell, 12, travels to Ghana for a funeral, then gets sucked into the Ghanaian mythological underworld. After chasing a monkey spirit who has stolen the dashiki sewn for him by his late grandmother, Kwame finds himself in the Realms of Asamando, just in time for an election. Asase Yaa (Mother Earth) has died, leaving behind ecological instability; now Asase’s sons Tano and Nansi are fighting for power. Can Kwame process his grief, find Asase’s widower (the Sky god Nyame), stop Tano and Nansi, and save the planet from environmental catastrophe? This debut novel has the breezy voice of the “Tristan Strong” and “Serwa Boateng” series, but it also innovates with humor and detail: Kwame faces immortals who order pizza and fufu from AsamandoEats. Kwame’s friendships are endearing and unique as he reunites with the teenaged spirit of his grandmother and brings along his best friend, Autumn, who identifies as Afro-Korean and has post-lingual hearing loss in both ears. The novel welcomes an ASL-signing duo into the supernatural realm and opens up a conversation about navigating intersectional identity, where all characters are fully realized. As an Obayifo—a supernatural being who just wants to eat pasta and watch theater—reminds Kwame, “We’re all three-dimensional. Look at yourself—a piece of a Ghanaian goddess inside you, and yet you feel disconnected from your culture. Go figure.”