A review by pickett22
Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
This is legitimately a VERY good book. I think it might objectively be the best of the RRP imprint that I've read so far (although I think I might still favour Dragon Pearl?).
The meta of it is amazing. It's poignant and profound and honestly hard to read without crying at some points. This book should be taught in all North American classrooms.
It took me a very long time to get through this book, but that's on me and my brain all of a sudden deciding that middle grade books were too hard to read (but for whatever reason, non-fiction was totally consumable. Make my brain make sense, please). It's a really, really excellent book, very highly recommended, and I look forward to my brain someday letting me read the next one.
The meta of it is amazing.
Spoiler
A world of people being hunted down by the legacy of slavery, their stories erased by fetters and brands and hulking ships of pain come to take them away, in the name of cotton and greed and everyone trying to forget and pretend it didn't happen, but that only makes it worse; pain, grief, and guilt must be confronted.It took me a very long time to get through this book, but that's on me and my brain all of a sudden deciding that middle grade books were too hard to read (but for whatever reason, non-fiction was totally consumable. Make my brain make sense, please). It's a really, really excellent book, very highly recommended, and I look forward to my brain someday letting me read the next one.