Mwikali and the Forbidden Mask [Intasimi Warriors]
by Shiko Nguru
Intermediate    Lantana    228 pp.
10/22    9781913747930    $17.99

Mwikali is nervous about her first day of school in ­Nairobi—at her old school in Chicago, her friend’s appendix burst after she drew a picture of it, and she was labeled a freak. But in Kenya things get even weirder when she draws her teacher as a monster, and the monster teacher then attacks her. She’s rescued by a group of students, the Intasimi Warriors, descendants of Kenyan mythical figures with their own powers, who assure her that she doesn’t cause events, only foresees them, and that she has the ability to detect monsters as they really are. ­Mwikali joins the students in a quest to stop an immortal village elder from freeing more monsters from the underworld in order to rule the world. In this mythology-minded adventure tale, Nguru provides readers with a solid introduction to Kenyan lore (including the friends’ culturally specific powers, monsters called shiqq, and progenitors such as the real-life nineteenth-century Kamba medicine woman Syokimau) and culture (such as fried mandazi, the standing stones Kit Miyaki, and the game of Bao). The emotional structure of the story—Mwikali’s fear of being bullied again, her resistance to relying on her friends even though her ancestor instructs her to, her eventual coming into her powers and her friendships—will resonate with many readers.

From the January/February 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.