Okoye To The People: A Black Panther Novel, by Ibi Zoboi

     I had seen this in my person's book bag a few times this past year, and was waiting for it to come home long enough for me to read it...I haven't read any of Zoboi's books yet, and was excited to read this one! In short, Okoye is a young woman from the African nation of Wakanda. She is also in training to be a warrior for her nation, guarding the king of Wakanda as he goes about his official duties. King T'Chaka is invited to visit the United States - New York City - and Okoye is included on this trip. She quickly learns that all in New York is not what it seems, and the person who has invited the king to the U.S. has nefarious intentions, which means her intentions are not as pure and good as she pretends them to be.

    In reality Zoboi uses this book to tell the reader about the state of race relations in this nation, past and present. She details how racism has unfairly treated Black people since the colonies were forming, and how that racism still plays out in today's world. This is all very important information, and should be the topic of many books, for young people and old alike. However, Zoboi does a poor job of working this into the story. Instead, her characters speak these facts as if they were being read from an encyclopedia, in a very dry, impersonal way that doesn't make you or I, the readers, want to know more, and want to be part of positive change. Instead of teaching us through the characters and the plot, the information is spit out at us with no feelings attached. This didn't give me anything to relate to as I read along and made the themes of the book fall very flat.

    I will read more books by this author, because I believe this is not her strongest work. I love that more books of all genres by and about people of color are populating the book shelves at stores and libraries, like River City! Unfortunately, Zoboi really misses the mark here, and short of what I think are her best intentions, this book is a dud. Darn. 2 paws.

    I still have a lot to read and learn about other experiences in the world, and in this case as race is a factor. Some of my all-time fave authors that I recommend to you are Jason Reynolds, Jacquelyn Woodson, and Kwame Alexander. I hope to add Ibi Zoboi to this list someday!