Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas

Pages: 304 

Publisher: Walker Books 

Released: 4th of April 2023 

Internationally bestselling superstar author Angie Thomas makes her middle grade debut with the launch of an inventive, hilarious, and suspenseful new contemporary fantasy trilogy inspired by African American history and folklore.

It’s not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool—like getting a pet hellhound for your twelfth birthday. Others, not so much—like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor.

All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic tool she’s never heard of...to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed.

What I Have to Say 

This book is so beautiful! It's the book that every black kid deserves to have. Steeped in Black history and folklore, I can see how it was truly a book that was needed in the genre. 

The world that Angie Thomas has built is well remarkable! I'm hoping to explore more of the remarkable cities and culture in the next book because that's the best part of any magic society book. This book gave us a tantalising glimpse into the magic world and I am so hungry for more. 

I didn't know a lot of the folklore in the book, so I'm definitely gonna do some research into it as there were a lot of references I didn't get. In the end, I think it wasn't written for me. It was written for Black American children and I'm really glad to see more and more writers writing for them. 

Can't wait for the next book! 

4 stars 

My thanks got to Walker and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 264 

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing 

Released: 8th of February 2018 

Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. 

Just because her mentor is black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope. Maybe there are some things she could show other women about understanding the world and finding ways to be real, to make a difference. 

What I Have to Say 

This book was beautiful and had so much to say. In one way it was about a Black girl trying to get through life with a mother who works so hard and can barely afford to keep the family fed. On the other hand, it was also a book about a private school girl who finds it hard to assert herself and ask for what she wants out of life. And about how to make people listen to her when she does. It's about racism. It's about opportunities. It's about Spanish and poverty and being Black. It's about so much more than anyone could put into a small synopsis. 

I loved the bits of Spanish at the start of each chapter and how much that Jade was into languages. They made such an interesting point about how giving a girl a trip to the opera when she's passionate about the Spanish language and making collages, isn't much of an opportunity when they could send her on a trip to a Spanish speaking country or help furthering her art. Giving her opportunities for an actual career and life rather than just viewing her as an underprivileged Black girl who needs charity. 

At it's heart though, it's about Jade learning to speak up for herself. Learning what opportunities are worth pursuing and when she has to speak up and say "this isn't useful for me, this is what I want" and getting the people around her to listen. 

This book really has something for everyone. It's an incite into what it's like to be a Black girl, what it's like to be a teenager and what it's like to live in poverty while also giving out advice and life lessons that is useful for everyone to know. Definitely one of the best books I've read this year. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with this copy for review. 

Passing for White by Tanya Landman

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Publisher: Barrington Stoke 

Released: 15th of May 2017 

1848. The Deep South. Rosa is a slave but her owner is also her father and her fair skin means that she can ‘pass for white’. With the aid of her husband, Rosa disguises herself as a young Southern gentleman, and her husband as her property. In this guise, the couple flee the South, explaining away their lack of literacy, avoiding anyone that they may have ever met and holding their nerve in the face of extreme stress and imminent danger, over a thousand miles to freedom. 

What I Have to Say 

One of the many things I liked about this was that it was a that it's based on a true story. Some of the names and events are changed but the basic story of two black people travelling across America in search of freedom is the same. It's inspiring and made even more awesome by the fact that there was no "white saviour" in the entire thing. The entire journey was all down to Rosa, a black slave, taking advantage of her light skin to disguise herself as a white gentleman. And that is just the most beautiful thing I've read lately. 

Rosa felt very real as well. Her fear as she traveled, always worrying that she would be caught out was infectious and it made me root for her so much, because I couldn't stand the thought that she wouldn't succeed. 

The language used in the book was mostly okay. The N-word was used once and Rosa's husband was addressed as "boy" a few times, but there was a note in the back explaining the authors decision to use these words and how she had tried to hold back as much as she could without being unrealistic. I think. Obviously being white I don't know what it would be like to be a black person reading this book, so I can't really comment more than to say I respect the author's decision and hope it doesn't offend anyone. 

My thanks go to Barrington Stoke and Nina Douglas for providing me with this copy for review. 

Night On Fire by Ronald Kidd

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 288

Publisher:  Albert Whitman & Company 

Released: 1st of September 2015

Thirteen-year-old Billie Simms doesn't think her hometown of Anniston, Alabama, should be segregated, but few of the town's residents share her opinion. As equality spreads across the country and the Civil Rights Movement gathers momentum, Billie can't help but feel stuck--and helpless--in a stubborn town too set in its ways to realize that the world is passing it by. 

So when Billie learns that the Freedom Riders, a group of peace activists riding interstate buses to protest segregation, will be traveling through Anniston on their way to Montgomery, she thinks that maybe change is finally coming and her quiet little town will shed itself of its antiquated views. But what starts as a series of angry grumbles soon turns to brutality as Anniston residents show just how deep their racism runs. 

The Freedom Riders will resume their ride to Montgomery, and Billie is now faced with a choice: stand idly by in silence or take a stand for what she believes in. Through her own decisions and actions and a few unlikely friendships, Billie is about to come to grips with the deep-seated prejudice of those she once thought she knew, and with her own inherent racism that she didn't even know she had.

What I Have to Say 

This is the sort of book that really makes you think. It's a very interesting insight in the lives of the children during such turbulent historical events. It was obviously very well researched and thought out, because the two girls were fitted into the events that happened really well. Jarmaine obviously fits in as a young black character who is angry at the world, but putting Billie right up the road from where the bus event happens was a really good choice. 

At first I was a bit uncertain about the fact that the author was showing such an important part of black history through the eyes of a white girl, but as the book went on, I started to see what he was trying achieve and I think it worked really well. As Billie's eyes are opened to the prejudice surrounding her everyday life, it's easier for the reader to see it. Telling it from Jarmaine's perspective wouldn't have worked so well to highlight the segregation and how deeply it ran. That said, I think that a dual narrative would have been nice for this book. 

As I said, this book is obviously so well researched. It was clever how the author slid the two girls into the events so that they were at the center of everything without affecting the integrity of the events that happened. 

I stayed up late two nights in a row to read this book because it was so addictive. This is a must for all fans of Middle Grade and a great book for diversity.