Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor is a novelist of Nigerian (Igbo) descent. She grew up in the Chicago area, but traveled frequently to Nigeria, where she absorbed the history and mythology that infuse her works of science fiction and fantasy, as in her Binti novella trilogy and the novels Akata Witch and Akata Warrior. Nnamdi’s father was a good chief of police, perhaps the best Kalaria had ever had. He was determined to root out the criminals that had invaded the town. But then he was murdered, and most people believed the Chief of Chiefs, the most powerful of the criminals, was responsible. In Ikenga (Viking Books for Young Readers) we follow Nnamdi. Yes, he has vowed to avenge his father, but can a twelve-year-old boy do? But then, in a mysterious nighttime meeting, he gets the gift of a magical object that enables super powers — and a charge to use those powers for good. How will he learn to control his newfound powers? Will he be able to fulfill his mission? Best-selling writer Ursula K. Le Guin, author of A Wizard of Earthsea, commented admiringly on Okorafor’s writing “There’s more imagination on a page of Nnedi Okorafor’s work than in whole volumes of ordinary fantasy epics.”