Mbalia, Kwame

Kwame Mbalia is the New York Times bestselling author of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. The book – Rick Riordan Presents/Disney-Hyperion – was the first in the Tristan Song Trilogy, and was recognized with a Coretta Scott King Author Honor. It was followed by Tristan Strong Destroys the World and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching. Mbalia co-wrote Last Gate of the Emperor with Prince Joel Makonnen and edited the instant New York Times bestseller Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood. Now introduced as a graphic adaptation, Rick Riordan Presents Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky: The Graphic Novel (Rick Riordan Presents), illustrated by Olivia Stephens and Robert Venditti, the original adventure is brought to full color. Seventh grader Tristan Strong couldn’t save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together – now all he has left of Eddie is the journal in which his friend wrote stories. Sent to his grandparents’ farm in Alabama to heal from the tragedy, Tristan’s first night there sees a sticky creature enter his bedroom and steal Eddie’s notebook. In trying to wrestle the journal out of the creature’s hands, Tristan accidentally punches open a chasm into the violent, dangerous MidPass. He is in a battle that left Black American folk heroes John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. Can Tristan win?