Chapter Two Hundred Thirty-Nine: Akata Wtich

I've read a couple of other books by Nnedi Okorafor, one for adults (Lagoon) and one for teens (The Shadow Speaker), so I was looking forward to reading Akata Witch, and it did not disappoint!  It definitely feels directed at younger teens, or even pre-teens (the main characters are all between 12 and 14 years old), but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  It has superficial similarities to Harry Potter--the protagonist, Sunny, discovers that she, unlike her parents or siblings, has magical abilities, and she joins a school where she learns more about these abilities and makes friends with similarly gifted children.  But it is not just a re-telling of Harry Potter that happens to be set in Nigeria.  Akata Witch draws on a variety of African traditions in its magical world-building, as well as offering depictions of current (more or less) life in Nigeria, and its plot and characters are pleasantly nuanced.  Some elements worked better for me than others--for example, I would've liked to see a little more questioning of tradition, though I loved how this book encourages readers to question the bias and perspective of any text they read, and the romantic subplots, though minor, felt utterly unnecessary, but on the whole, I enjoyed it and plan on reading the sequel, Akata Warrior.