Young Adult

By Omotola Otubela

• Title: Tech Explorers League: Rise of the Robot
  
• Author: Paul Kisakye
• Publisher: Aniseeker LLC
• Number of pages: 188
• Year of publication: 2016
• Category: Children

‘Do you have a story burning to be told? Do you have a voice that must be heard? Then write. Because writing is no small calling. Otherwise, get back to your normal day job and save us the agony of watching our time being flushed down the toilet.

I’ve written some stories that haven’t gone down well with some Christian friends of mine. But God liked them. And that’s what really matters’. – Paul Kisakye

Tech Explorers League is a series of science fiction novels for children. It comprises three books: Rise of the Robot, Hacked! and Farming Fiasco. The author, Paul Kisakye, is an unapologetic Christian; he often refers to himself as a ‘Christian Writer’. He has to his credit another book, Prodigal Love: Embracing God’s Outrageous, Unconditional Love, which explores how most people think about their relationship with God. His short story, ‘Emotional Rollercoaster’ was also shortlisted for the Writivism Short Story Prize in 2013. From all indications, it is clear that he knows his onions when it comes to creative storytelling. More…

By Timi Odueso

• Title: Sunny and the Mysteries of Osisi
  
• Author: Nnedi Okorafor
• Publisher: Cassava Republic Press
• Number of pages: 329
• Year of publication: 2018
• Category: Young Adult

Unlike its prequel, What Sunny Saw in the Flames, with its heretical use of language, idiosyncratic description of African mythology and blinding characterisation, Nnedi Okorafor’s Sunny and the Mysteries of Osisi with every page excited and intrigued this reader. Set in contemporary Africa, the new book continues the story of the Leopard Folk – people with surreal abilities – through the hazel eyes of the heroine, Sunny. While the author employs a third-person point of view in presenting the heroine, the other characters are only seen through Sunny’s eyes. In more ways than one, this can be viewed as an allusion to the relationship between her albinism and the meaning of her spirit name, Anyanwu, eye of the sun. More…

By Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè

• Title: Who Told the Most Incredible Story?
• Author: Naana J E S Opoku-Agyemang
• Publisher: Afram Publishers (Ghana) Limited
• Number of pages: 619 (5 Vols: Vol 1, 113pp; Vol 2, 121pp; Vol 3, 128pp; Vol 4, 122pp; Vol 5, 135pp)
• Year of publication: 2015
• Category: Children

‘“Fantasy” is the natural bedrock of all African folktales. In other words, there is no African oral narrative, including folktales, both “fictional” and “non-fictional”, that is not couched in varying degrees of fantasy’, writes Ademola Dasylva in his monograph, Classificatory Paradigms in African Oral Narrative (p 14). It is often said that childlike truths are best expressed in a childlike manner, and fantasy is a sure means of perpetuating childlike truths. Fantasy allows free range for the imagination of oral artists and their listeners. More…

By Modupe Yusuf

• Title: Those Who Wait
• Number of pages: 156
• Title: Perfectly Imperfect
• Number of pages: 168
• Year of publication: 2014
• Title: Plain Yellow
• Number of pages: 175
• Year of publication: 2015
• Author: Ruby Yayra Goka
• Publisher: Techmate Publishers Limited
• Category: Young Adult

The challenges of youth are innumerable. Ruby Yayra Goka is one writer who has chosen to explore the experiences of youth, with all of its challenges and adventures, and in the books under review, even though the experiences of youth are not exclusively those of the girl-child, Goka explores youth-related themes and issues through young, female protagonists. More…

By Agatha Aduro

• Title: The Boy Who Spat in Sargrenti’s Eye
• Author: Manu Herbstein
• Publisher: Techmate Publishers Limited
• Number of pages: 236
• Year of publication: 2014
• Category: Young Adult

‘Do you know who Sargrenti was? That was the name I gave to Major General Sir Garnet Wolseley, KCMG, Commander of the British Queen Victoria’s Army which invaded Asante and sacked its capital, Kumase, in 1874, 21 years ago. Here he is, with his waxed moustache and medals’.

These are the opening sentences of The Boy Who Spat in Sargrenti’s Eye, discounting the ‘Author’s Note’ which precedes them. The author’s note is itself a part of this fictionalised retelling of one of the five conflicts that are together known as the Anglo-Ashanti Wars, specifically the Third Anglo-Ashanti War, also known as The First Ashanti Expedition. More…

By Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè

• Title: Masai Mara Adventures with Olê Ntutu
• Author: Gerald Kithinji
• Publisher: Morven Kester East Africa Limited
• Number of pages: 202
• Year of publication: 2015
• Category: Young Adult

There is an exigent situation that threatens the existence of animals. Rhinoceroses, elephants, lions have been under attack and their numbers are now drastically reduced. Recently, the saga of Cecil the lion, in Zimbabwe, hunted down and beheaded by an American tourist, roused fury and controversy internationally. And, that is just one case that got media attention – illegal hunting still goes on unreported. Already, the northern white rhinoceros is on the verge of extinction with only five left on the planet. More…

By Modupe Yusuf

• Title: Sula and Ja
• Author: Ellen Banda-Aaku
• Publisher: Kachifo Limited
• Number of pages: 172
• Year of publication: 2014
• Category: Young Adult

Income, occupational prestige and educational attainment are some of the yardsticks by which people are measured in the society. It is not exactly the case that anyone is employed to categorise people. One measures the standing of others against one’s own.

This act of measuring the achievements of others against one’s own causes people to associate with others with whom they share class characteristics. A person is considered a social threat if they do not conform to the requirements of their particular social class. The actions of such nonconformists are bound to be misinterpreted and cause awkward situations. More…

By Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè

• Title: Deviant Boy
• Author: Samuel Nii Ashie Nikoi
• Publisher: Digibooks Ghana Limited
• Number of pages: 162
• Year of publication: 2015
• Category: Young Adult

Deviant Boy is the kind of story some of us probably have told ourselves or imagined several times when we were young, especially when we were animated by daydreams of coming into fabulous riches. This is the kind of story told by Samuel Nii Ashie Nikoi. Deviant Boy is best categorised under young adult literature. The story is most suitable for young adults because of the tone and the language of the narration. More…

By Modupe Yusuf

• Title: After the Tears
• Author: Michelle Faure
• Publisher: Cover2Cover Books
• Number of pages: 144
• Year of publication: 2014
• Category: Young Adult

Ideal love stories are ideal because they are a near-perfect imitation of what we dream love should be about. They have a happy ending, too. This love story, After the Tears, is however not that ideal. The recklessness of youth and the calculations of the not so young sometimes result in unforeseen and seemingly helpless situations. Such is the case with Busi whose life suffers a sharp reversal when she is made pregnant by her much older and married boyfriend. Having to care for her ageing grandmother while preparing for her final examinations and while dealing with the embarrassment of a swelling belly, she shies away from all social activities involving her schoolmates. Her otherwise simple life takes interesting turns within a really short time. More…