Kwame Crashes the Underworld by Craig Kofi Farmer
Product Details
Web ID: 19876111Excellent Middle Grade Fantasy!
A hilarious Middle Grade fantasy packed with Ghanian culture and folklore, Kwame Crashes the Underworld is an action-packed story that still boasts great character development and an expert exploration of grief and depression in pre-teens. Framer does an excellent job exploring the complexities of mourning, especially the young mourning the elderly, and how unprocessed grief can manifest negatively in other ways. Kwame Crashes the Underworld also investigates the 2nd/3rd-generation immigrant expericence for a pre-teen who feels displaced from ancestral culture and what it means to truly ~be~ from a place.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great for fans of Percy Jackson
4.5 ⭐️ Kwame’s story is fun, entertaining, endearing and fresh. Kwame’s adventure with his very best friend had my attention from start to finish. I loved getting to learn about Ghanaian folklore. Their adventure takes them to Asamando - a vibrant and rich “beyond the veil” type place where souls go following death. Kwame getting more time with his grandmother was very sweet. This story is ultimately about grief, friendship, and how to emotionally mingle family culture and personal culture (there are likely much better terms for this, so I apologize for not being aware of them). I also really loved having deaf representation be so prominent in this story and how ASL was a true asset to the storyline. The audiobook narration was really enjoyable and should be considered by anyone planning to read this story. Thank you to NetGalley, Craig Kofi Farmer, and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook ARC.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A Story that will leave you screaming "Woooo!!!"
There isn’t a single thing I didn’t absolutely love about Kwame Crashes the Underworld. I’m always on the lookout for fantasy inspired by African culture so I was very excited when I read that Craig Kofi Farmer’s debut was inspired by Ghanaian mythology. This story didn’t just live up to my already high expectations, it lived up to the title and crushed them. The story explores important themes like grief, hope, identity, family, and culture. I was really happy that Farmer didn’t shy away from these topics in his MG debut but gave them the attention and care they deserved. So much in fact that even I, an adult, found the way these topics were handled in the story to be inspiring. So, hats off to the author. But on the other hand, this is a very funny story. I found myself constantly laughing out loud. There is a line specifically that Kwame’s Mom said in the early chapters that had me rolling. Speaking of which, Kwame was an awesome protagonist. As a son of immigrants myself, I was able to identify with his struggles since I lived through them myself when I was his age. But I also loved his resourcefulness, adaptability, intelligence, and courage. Really, he was just the type of protagonist one couldn’t help but get behind. Autumn, however, was the highlight of the story for me. Her friendship with Kwame was so wholesome and inspiring. But to add to that, she was an incredible person in her own right, often dictating the narrative herself as she found her own strength. I really appreciate that the book didn’t treat her as the protagonist’s sidekick but rather as her own person with her own story that is just as important and valid. The mythology aspect of the novel was fantastic. I wasn’t quite familiar with Ghanaian mythology, hence my search for stories inspired by African cultures. But quite honestly Kwame Crashes the Underworld inspired me to research this rich culture on my own. I found the integration into the story to be very well executed and I wasn’t lost for even a second. Quite the opposite. I was constantly looking forward to the new thing I was going to learn. Kwame Crashes the Underworld is an incredible debut by Craig Kofi Farmer that will leave you screaming “woooooo!”
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com