August 6, 2024 by Disney/Rick Riordan Presents
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus
Misty has recently moved to Brooklyn from Trinidad. She and her mother, who is looking for a job, are living with her Aunt Trish, Uncle Stanley, and cousin Brooke, and her Uncle Andrew and cousin Aiden live in the "garden aparment" (basement). Her father is still in Trinidad. She's enjoying her new city, but wants more freedom to explore than her mother wants to allow her. She looking forward to all of the carnival activities, and her uncle Andrew is making elaborate costumes for his masquerade group (band). When Aiden and Misty are sent to the basement to retrieve some craft supplies, they are surprised by a "fluffrat" that seems to be made out of sequins and feathers but is alive. They find out that the family are healers called mokos, and all three cousins have come into their powers. Each generation has three people with these powers, which include healing, protection, and the ability to see things others don't. Aunty Kamala, who is an aziza, or a fairy, gives them enchanted food to test them, and all three breathe fire after eating it! The children's powers are slowly revealed; a fire at the Caribbean Bite restaurant that Brooke's parents run reveal her protection abilities, and Misty has visions that often cause her to pass out. When the "fluffrat", a mas they name Wonky, escapes and attacks their neighbor Mr. Abara, Aiden realizes he has the ability to heal, The carnival is in danger of being closed down by an evil councilwoman, Ms. Cook, who claims that too many crimes are committed when it is going on. Aunty Kamala manages to shut down a meeting and temporarily persuade Cook to stop her efforts, but the woman won't give up. The children get involved in various preparations; Aiden is writing a calypso song, and the children go to listen to Steel Biloko pan music. Bad weather seems to be targeting the event, but Misty is able to discern that it is caused by an evil spirit. As the bad weather increases and becomes more and more violent, the children become more and more worn down. Magic is being sucked out of the community, and other members are ending up in hospitals in zombie-like states. At one point, Misty thinks that a local librarian, Melanie, whom they met while researching West African folklore, might be the monster, and Mr. Abara surprises them by knowing a lot about this folklore and helping them out. Misty encounters the monster, called a khodumodumo, and realizes it has taken over Melanie in an effort to be understood. Will the newly minted "moko babies" be able to hear the story that the khodumodumo wants heard, and save their community from the chaos it will wreak if it is not?
Strengths: The Labor Day weekend in Brooklyn must be quite the celebration! There are so many plans going on with food, activities, music, and costumes that the cousins are able to get into a lot of trouble. Combine this with emergent, inherited magical powers, and this makes for quite a fun story. I loved the mix of uncles, aunts, cousins, and family friends and neighbors who are all around to help out and give the cousins information about their new powers. Aunty Kamala and her magical baked goods was quite interesting. I loved the note from Baptiste that one of Aiden's songs was based on one her own brother had done when he was young. The next book in the series is entitled Museum Mayhem, but I am not finding a publication date for it. Probably about this time of year in 2025.
Weaknesses: This had a lot of things going on, and a lot of information. At 400 pages, it almost could have been divided into two books. Since this was written in the third person, it wasn't necessary to label chapters with different characters' names; that is usually used when the chapters are from different character's perspectives.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Baptiste's writing in The Jumbies series, the West African celebrations in Riguad's A Girl's Guide to Love and Magic or the tweens getting powers in Kerr's The Ahkenaton Adventure.
Weaknesses: This had a lot of things going on, and a lot of information. At 400 pages, it almost could have been divided into two books. Since this was written in the third person, it wasn't necessary to label chapters with different characters' names; that is usually used when the chapters are from different character's perspectives.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Baptiste's writing in The Jumbies series, the West African celebrations in Riguad's A Girl's Guide to Love and Magic or the tweens getting powers in Kerr's The Ahkenaton Adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment