Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor had been sitting on the top of my to be read pile for too long. It’s been there for so long that I cannot remember who recommended buying it. There are quite a few books on my to-be-read pile so I try not to buy quite so many. (I try but am not always successful.)
Akata Witch looked so interesting that I bought it on Amazon anyway – with my own money and everything. Well, whoever told me about Akata Witch deserves all of the thanks in this world.
Akata Witch has been compared to the Harry Potter series, except that it’s set in Africa with characters who are African and African-American. I can’t say that the magic is the exactly the same either. Is magic the same around the globe? Probably not but I’m not an expert.
As far as I can tell, none of the characters are orphans. Sunny’s father reminds me of the uncle in Harry Potter. They are both jerks.
Akata means African-American. According to Wikipedia, the word may come from the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria.
The main character, Sunny, is an eleven-year-old African-American albino. She’s also an excellent soccer player but she hasn’t been able to play in the sun for quite some time. Most of the time, Sunny plays soccer at night with her brothers.
Sunny probably has dual citizenship in America and Nigeria. I don’t know the exact guidelines for dual citizenship. Her parents moved to the United States from Nigeria and then recently moved back to Nigeria. Sunny discovers that she has magical powers that have been hidden until after the move back to Nigeria.
I loved Akata Witch. If they make the book into a movie, I hope that they do it justice.
I cannot wait to buy the sequel, Akata Warrior, to put on the top of the to-be-read-pile.
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