Wr. B. B. Alston
Ill. Brittany Jackson
Pub. Egmont (2021)
Age Range - 8-12 years
Amari Peters knows three things. Her big brother Quinton has gone missing.
No one will talk about it. His mysterious job holds the secret... So
when Amari gets an invitation to the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs,
she’s certain this is her chance to find Quinton. But first she has to
get her head around the new world of the Bureau, where mermaids, aliens
and magicians are real, and her roommate is a weredragon. Amari
must compete against kids who’ve known about the supernatural world
their whole lives, and when each trainee is awarded a special
supernatural talent, Amari is given an illegal talent – one that the
Bureau views as dangerous. With an evil magician threatening the
whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is the
enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the
three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton . . .
With Amari taking the MG world by storm, I don't need to say much about about the plot - anyone who stumbles upon my review will already know. The book is a real gem. Alston takes a minority character and treats her with respect and diligence. There will always be a weight of responsibility on a writer tackling inequality, and Amari is a bold, inspirational character. I felt the ending was a little swift, after such a strong build up, and that's really the only thing stopping it from being five stars. It really is a brilliant book, and one which is clearly going to become a modern classic.
On a side note, the audio book is a curious affair and did impact on my enjoyment. Agent Fiona, for example, pronounces "you" as "ye", because this is how it's written in the US edition (it's written as "you" in the UK edition), but she pronounces "your" and "you'll" just fine. There were also several moments where the delivery felt like the narrator was working from an autocue showing one sentence at a time, leading to some very odd inflections. Not a huge deal, but jarring enough to notice.
teaching ideas
chapter by chapter comprehension questions