Thank you to Amina at Simon & Schuster for sending me a proof! Loving the pretty gold. I'm currently in a middle-grade fantasy phase so the timing of being asked to review the book was perfect.
Themes: Nigeria, superpowers, mutants, heroine, family, acceptance
Black Panther meets Percy Jackson in this action-packed and empowering middle-grade superhero series about a British-Nigerian girl who learns that her Afro hair has psychokinetic powers.
I close my eyes, trying to push the power bubbling in me back down . . . Hairbands snap as my hair shoots out like superfine arrows, tearing through everything in its path.
Onyeka has a lot of hair – the kind that makes strangers stop in the street. She’s always felt insecure about her vibrant curls, until she makes an important discovery: she can control her hair with her mind!
Her mother quickly whisks her off to the Academy of the Sun, a school in Nigeria where Solari – children with superpowers – are trained. But Onyeka and her new friends at the Academy soon have to put their powers to the test as they find themselves caught up in an epic battle . . . one that puts the future of all Solari at risk.
Now I won't lie, anytime I see a book with a Black girl and superpowers I question is this going to be similar to my book. I had so many people message me about Amari and The Night Brothers saying it's similar. Issue was I had to interview BB and a panel so I finally read the proof, I realised it was similar but different and I enjoyed it so I read Onyeka and The Academy of the Sun with a bit more of an open mind.
Onyeka gets teased for her huge hair that literally makes people stare. Black girls who rock their natural Afro will definitely relate to! Onyeka and her mum have quite a tense relationship and you find out it's because her Mum has been waiting for her Solari powers to come through. Once it does, her mum wants to find Onyeka's dad who has gone missing and she takes her back to Nigeria to train at the Academy of the Sun. But Onyeka's Mum decides to leave her at the school so she can find her dad and now stuck Onyeka tries to control her hair which holds her power.
Like in my last post I mentioned the rise of powers especially set in Nigeria. There are a lot of Nigerian food references which I appreciate! Especially that Nigerians's call plantain dodo, which I don't think a lot of people know. I liked the Pidgin English which my mum has spoken to me in before and I'm always like come again? I haven't seen this in children's books and really liked that it was included.
From her picture books, Tola has really made hair her go to and her passion for hair shines through in the book. The book starts in the swimming pool and Black girls and water could be a book in itself! Onyeka's hair being her superpower is so encouraging for Black girls and will definitely empower them. There's even a Ms Bello in the book (obvs me) who is fantastic lol.
I love Cheyenne and Onyeka's relationship and I wish Cheyenne was in Nigeria as well because they play of each other really well. There is a book 2 so hopefully we will see more of Cheyenne.
I've read Marvel comics before I read books so I'm a massive geek on that. There was alot of Marvel references especially X-Men with the jet and the mutant gene and the gadget that can find the mutants like Cerebro. I would have liked it to not have been so on the nose.
There are some similarities with my book - Black girl with powers, the different powers within the characters, missing dad, secret farmhouse but a Nigerian superhero set in Nigeria with magic hair is different and is something I can root for.
My pile of books with Black heroes are growing! Our hair is our crown but Onyeka shows us that it's also our superpower.
4/5
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