Lola Benko travels the world with her archeologist dad. She's used to hopping around the globe with no place to call home. But when her dad mysteriously sends her to live with her great-aunt Irma and is thought to have died trying to recover his next artifact, Lola swears he's still alive. She will stop at nothing to find her father even if it means getting caught stealing expensive art from a rich mansion. But if she's to uncover the truth she'll have to trust kids her own age and she's used to doing things on her own.
Lola is a fantastic character, she's into STEM and likes to invent things and dives in head first often without a plan which makes her lovable even in her mistakes. Unfortunately Lola Benko didn't have the world travels and Indiana Jones style treasure hunts I expected but it did have a lot of heart and some fun and sometimes unexpected middle of the night adventures that often went sideways before the characters were able to get themselves out of the mess created. Lola's friends Hannah and Jin are believable and help level and challenge Lola as a character. And the ending had a nice wrap up while also opening the door for the sequel.
I recommend to all middle grade readers looking for a little adventure with a side of mischief and fun that doesn't always go according to plan.
ARC generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
When Amari gets kicked out of school
for fighting with a kid who teased her about her missing brother, her mom has
no idea what she will do for Amari's education. While Quinton’s disappearance
is mysterious, most people think he got involved in something illegal and is
probably long dead. Amari knows her brother was too smart to do anything like
that but no one believes her. Until a magical briefcase shows up and has a
message for Amari, from her brother.
The cryptic message leads her to the
Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, a secret organization that trained Quinton and
hired him to investigate supernatural happenings including chasing down evil
magicians. Amari is eager to join the Bureau with the sole purpose of using her
time to investigate her brother's disappearance and find him. But when her
initial evaluation yields an unexpected result, she is thrust into another
situation that makes her painfully aware of how hard it is to be different, and
from a background that isn't appreciated. Amari struggles to prove herself, so
she can continue to look for clues to save Quinton while navigating an unknown
environment with an evil magician bent on punishing the supernatural world. But
if she can't solve the mystery of Quinton's disappearance before her training
runs out, she'll be back home with her memory erased and no closer to rescuing
her brother.
Amari and the Night Brothers
contains a magical and imaginative world with a wonderfully diverse cast that
you want to dive right into and never stop turning pages. Amari is a
strong main character who has been brought up in a world where the system is
stacked against her. She is painfully aware of the hurdles in front of her
because she is poor and black. Despite the constant roadblocks, Amari rises to
the occasion and even when she wants to quit she reminds herself what her
brother would do in that situation. She continues to push ahead even when
tempted by a seemingly easy road that would sacrifice her internal moral compass
and lead to terrible path. Ultimately nothing stops her from standing up for
what she believes in. And it’s wrapped up in a story filled with surprises and
intrigue at every step along the journey. The themes are so beautifully woven
into the adventure and mystery and the story demonstrates the importance of
having role models and allies along the way.
This is the first book I’ve read in
a while that was hard to put down. I can’t think of anything that I didn’t
like about the story other than it ended far too soon. Amari and the Night Brothers is the next big thing. It
will be a HUGE series for young and not-so-young readers alike. Make sure you
get your hands on it ASAP, because everyone will be talking about this book. I
can’t believe I have to wait a whole year for the next installment because I’m
ready to dive into this world all over again.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
B.
B. Alston
started writing in middle school, entertaining his classmates with
horror stories starring the whole class where not everyone survived!
After several years
of trying to break into publishing, he had just been accepted into a
biomedical graduate program when a chance entry into a twitter pitch
contest led to his signing with TBA, 20+ book deals worldwide, and even a
film deal. When not writing, he can be found
eating too many sweets and exploring country roads to see where they
lead.
B. B. was inspired to write
AMARI AND THE NIGHT BROTHERS because he couldn’t find any fantasy
stories featuring Black kids when he was growing up. He hopes to show
kids that though you might look different, or feel different, whatever
the reason, your uniqueness needn’t only be
a source of fear and insecurity. There is great strength and joy to be
found in simply accepting yourself for who you are. Because once you do
so, you’ll be unstoppable.
Cricket could always see colors around objects, but she always
thought it meant there was something wrong with her. Until her birthday when Cricket's Dad gave her mother's journal to her as a gift. From the journal, she discovered that her mother saw the
colors too, meaning Cricket wasn't as odd as everyone thought. But when the colors she saw started indicating
bad and strange things, she knew something was wrong. And after a creature replaces her baby brother with aslumgwump, things really started to get out of hand. When no one else seemed to notice
the difference and Cricket was blamed for the strange happenings, she
made it her mission to put things back the way they were. Cricket must find
her brother and return him before everyone she loves, including her parents and
her best friend, turns against her and her baby brother is gone forever.
The
Slug Queen Chronicles was a great imaginative story with inventive ideas. While
it was a little heavy on details at times, Cricket is a fun and inquisitive
main character. I would have loved to have seen Cricket encounter more
difficult challenges, but she asks lots of questions that the reader is asking
right along with her. The world Cricket enters to rescue her brother, takes
things from the known world and flips them sideways that gives the book a similar feel to Alice and
Wonderland. And the illustrations at the start of every chapter are a lot of
fun. I would recommend for readers looking to escape to an imaginative world.
