CCBC booklist are compiled from books we have recommended in various editions of CCBC Choices. Most of these booklists are updated annually. You can also select books from one or more booklists to create a custom list, which can also include additional books from the CCBC-Recommended Book Search.
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The Shadow Speaker
CCBC Review:
Ejii is fourteen, and a shadow speaker. She is still learning to develop her skills for reading the hearts and minds of people, plants, and animals when she embarks on a dangerous journey across the desert to join Jaa, the Red Queen of Niger, at a meeting aimed at avoiding all-out war between earth and the world of Ginen. Jaa both intrigues and frightens Ejii, but after “reading” the queen’s intention to murder the Ginen leader, she pushes her fear aside, certain that she must thwart Jaa’s plan if peace is to be preserved. Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu has penned an original and intriguing work blending science fiction with fantasy as she describes a future in which nuclear devastation has changed the very fabric of human existence on earth. Ejii, like Dikéogu, a boy who has escaped from slavery and becomes Ejii’s traveling companion, is a metahuman, endowed with mystical powers that were all but nonexistent before the Great Change. The author’s story is set in part on the continent of Africa, where Ejii lives, and on the fictional world of Ginen. Her settings integrate recognizable elements with richly imagined possibilities in a coming-of-age story grounded by complex and wholly believable characters who are navigating personal challenges and political tension alike. ©2007 Cooperative Children's Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 11-14
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
African Peoples
Disasters
Dystopias
Fantasy
Girls and Women
Journeys and Quests
Magic
Politics and Political Systems
Science Fiction
Speculative Fiction
Diversity subject:
Black/African
On CCBC Booklist:
Speculative and Science Fiction for Children and Teens
Publishers:
Hyperion, Jump at the Sun
Publish Year: 2007
Pages: 336
ISBN: 1423100336
CCBC Location: Fiction, Okorafor-Mbachu
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Please send questions or comments about CCBC booklists to ccbcinfo@education.wisc.edu.