Kwame Crashes the Underworld

July 8, 2024
Farmer makes divine drama relatably human in this lively debut that celebrates Ghanaian culture and mythology while tackling themes of grief and identity. Intent on recovering the dashiki made for him by his late grandmother, Black 12-year-old Kwame chases a creature reminiscent of “long-haired monkeys” after it escapes with the garment through a portal to the Ghanaian underworld. But when Kwame’s soul is identified as carrying a shard of the earth goddess’s essence, he becomes the target of her son, the trickster god Nansi, who plans on using Kwame’s newfound abilities to destroy humanity as revenge for what it’s done to his mother’s planet. Accompanied by his hard-of-hearing Black and Korean best friend Autumn and his grandmother’s spirit, Kwame must dodge sea monsters, survive cursed forests, and save the planet in his crusade to return to the mortal realm. Using Kwame’s sympathetic first-person POV as a reluctant hero struggling to express his grief and connect with his Ghanaian heritage, Farmer deftly weaves together an inclusive tale of friendship, family, and identity featuring characters and adventure readers will yearn to revisit. Key moments depict conversations in American Sign Language. Ages 8–12. Agent: Emily Forney, BookEnds Literary.

Starred review from August 1, 2024
A grieving 12-year-old from North Carolina finds comfort, a sense of purpose, and epic adventures in the afterlife. Kwame is reluctant to travel with his parents to Ghana for a celebration of the life of his beloved, sorely missed grandmother. He feels out of place there, not Ghanaian enough for his relatives. So what changes his mind? Perhaps it's meeting his grandmother as a dynamic child of about his age following an involuntary leap into the underworld of Asamando? Or learning that he carries a fragment of Asase Yaa, Mother Earth? Or it might be facing threats including a sea monster and Asase's conniving sons Tano the river god and Nansi the trickster. He also repeatedly rescues and is rescued by his game-loving, longtime bestie, Autumn Choi, who leaps intrepidly after him from the living world brandishing a sword she bought online and a fierce attitude honed by years of being bullied for being hard of hearing (the friends communicate using ASL) as well as Black and Korean. Ultimately, Kwame understands that he's American by birth but Ghanian by heritage--and that, through his connection with Asase, he's charged with everyone on Earth. Debut author Farmer tells a grand tale, funny and terrifying in turns, steeped in Ghanaian spirituality and folklore, and wrapped around themes of identity, obligation, true friendship, and devastating loss. Readers will come away admiring Kwame and the redoubtable Autumn. Heroic feats aplenty amid explorations of rich cultural and personal landscapes. (map, author's note, glossary)(Fantasy. 9-13)

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Starred review from August 9, 2024

Gr 3-7-North Carolinian Kwame Powell, 12, travels to Ghana for a funeral, then gets sucked into the Ghanaian mythological underworld. After chasing a monkey spirit who has stolen the dashiki sewn for him by his late grandmother, Kwame finds himself in the Realms of Asamando, just in time for an election. Asase Yaa (Mother Earth) has died, leaving behind ecological instability; now Asase's sons Tano and Nansi are fighting for power. Can Kwame process his grief, find Asase's widower (the Sky god Nyame), stop Tano and Nansi, and save the planet from environmental catastrophe? This debut novel has the breezy voice of the "Tristan Strong" and "Serwa Boateng" series, but it also innovates with humor and detail: Kwame faces immortals who order pizza and fufu from AsamandoEats. Kwame's friendships are endearing and unique as he reunites with the teenaged spirit of his grandmother and brings along his best friend, Autumn, who identifies as Afro-Korean and has post-lingual hearing loss in both ears. The novel welcomes an ASL-signing duo into the supernatural realm and opens up a conversation about navigating intersectional identity, where all characters are fully realized. As an Obayifo-a supernatural being who just wants to eat pasta and watch theater-reminds Kwame, "We're all three-dimensional. Look at yourself-a piece of a Ghanaian goddess inside you, and yet you feel disconnected from your culture. Go figure." VERDICT This swashbuckling, supernatural adventure into the land of Ghanian mythology will have all readers (and especially fans of Rick Riordan Presents titles) craving more. Highly recommended.-Katherine Magyarody

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 10, 2025
Grades 4-7 Kwame Powell has power buried inside him that his grandmother used to tell stories about. When the goddess Asase Yaa died, she sent her sunsum (spirit) into the children born to all the guardians of her beloved creation, Earth. When Kwame's dashiki is stolen by a strange-looking monkey, he jumps into the river after it--after all, the dashiki was the only thing he had left of his grandmother, and the glowing of his birthmark only gave him more questions. He surfaces in the underworld of Asamando, home to not only the spirits of the Ghanian deceased but also demons and gods still very much alive and troubling the world above. He soon learns that his essence is a means for the gods to create a new Mother goddess that they can control, and as such, he was called to the underworld. As the last living child of the guardians, Kwame is compelled to enter the dark depths of the underworld's Eloko Forest to face the gods. Infused with Ghanian folklore and lush settings, Farmer's debut brings a hopeful twist to traditional tales of grief. Young fans of the Tristan Strong series will find this story equally appealing.

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