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A review by dandelionsteph
Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun by Tọlá Okogwu
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
The themes, especially near the end, are a little too explicit and precise. For this young audience, having the character make a "today/this book I learned..." message near the end has some justification, but making her explicit, in-narration realization two sentences instead of about four would have been better. Given the message was built up throughout multiple passages in the book, including in-narration, going for four sentences to confirm it seems excessive, and brings the reader out of the narrative.
The use of Pidgin was a puzzling choice. Hassan uses it frequently, but it is not translated in-text. There is a glossary in the back, yes, but I didn't know there would be one, so I didn't consult it as I read. I eventually felt I could parse some parts of his speech through context clues or phonetic similarity to different words, but other parts were beyond me. His speech was frustrating to read because it used some English words, even in an irregular format (e.g., "No like dark, smelly caves" instead of "I don't like dark, smelly caves"), but others were novel or apparently spelled phonetically (e.g., "dis"). Because Hassan's speech sounded like broken English or "primitive tribal speak", his choice (and the author's choice) to use it during particularly dramatic or conflict-filled moments was strange, and inadvertently lightened up the tone of the scene in a way that felt out of place.
As about half (or more) of his dialogue was hard to parse, I felt less able to understand him, and thus less able to connect with him. Making his distinct cultural heritage/identity aspect relate to making his speech often difficult to understand was a puzzling decision.
It's worth comparing his speech to Onyeka's speech. I occasionally noted the odd feel of her British word choices (e.g., I have to mentally-translate her use of "football" into "soccer" and "table football" into "foosball"), and thought it was at times excessive (she sure uses "proper" as a "very"-like intensifier a lot). Yet, 99% of her speech, as well as the narration from her perspective, is easy to understand. I do not feel her British word choices interfere with my ability to understand her. In fact, it's often easy to forget she's British, because she so rarely uses "Britishisms" like spelling things with a "u" (harbour, colour, etc.) or British swap-ins ("lorry" instead of "taxi", etc.).
Ultimately, if Hassan needed a language-related identity trait, toning down the pidgin or replacing it with another language that doesn't look like English would have been a better choice.
The use of Pidgin was a puzzling choice. Hassan uses it frequently, but it is not translated in-text. There is a glossary in the back, yes, but I didn't know there would be one, so I didn't consult it as I read. I eventually felt I could parse some parts of his speech through context clues or phonetic similarity to different words, but other parts were beyond me. His speech was frustrating to read because it used some English words, even in an irregular format (e.g., "No like dark, smelly caves" instead of "I don't like dark, smelly caves"), but others were novel or apparently spelled phonetically (e.g., "dis"). Because Hassan's speech sounded like broken English or "primitive tribal speak", his choice (and the author's choice) to use it during particularly dramatic or conflict-filled moments was strange, and inadvertently lightened up the tone of the scene in a way that felt out of place.
As about half (or more) of his dialogue was hard to parse, I felt less able to understand him, and thus less able to connect with him. Making his distinct cultural heritage/identity aspect relate to making his speech often difficult to understand was a puzzling decision.
It's worth comparing his speech to Onyeka's speech. I occasionally noted the odd feel of her British word choices (e.g., I have to mentally-translate her use of "football" into "soccer" and "table football" into "foosball"), and thought it was at times excessive (she sure uses "proper" as a "very"-like intensifier a lot). Yet, 99% of her speech, as well as the narration from her perspective, is easy to understand. I do not feel her British word choices interfere with my ability to understand her. In fact, it's often easy to forget she's British, because she so rarely uses "Britishisms" like spelling things with a "u" (harbour, colour, etc.) or British swap-ins ("lorry" instead of "taxi", etc.).
Ultimately, if Hassan needed a language-related identity trait, toning down the pidgin or replacing it with another language that doesn't look like English would have been a better choice.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Violence, Vomit, and Abandonment
Minor: Cursing, Death, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Colonisation
One character mentions he put his friend in an indefinite coma because of his ice powers when he was six.
I don't recall if the word "racism" or "racial prejudice" was used in the book, but given Onyeka's negative experiences in Britain about people reacting to her (afro-textured) hair, it seems at least partly applicable.
Onyeka vomits from the nausea of using her powers more than once, including multiple times in one chapter.
Brief mentions of slavery (due to something in Nigeria's distant past).
The side effects of using superpowers [spoiler]aren't a terminal illness in the conventional sense[/spoiler], but I'm marking it anyway.
There are a few instances of out-of-place cursing (or, depending on how you define it, just extraneous crass language).
There are some questionable elements of the Academy, such as bringing in kids who are 4-8 to their own section of what is effectively a boarding school. It believe they aren't allowed to leave until they graduate. At least one of them has no parental contact. Since there isn't a tag for "technically prison-like boarding school", for lack of a better descriptor, I'm putting in "forced institutionalization".