The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. The writer’s name is at the top in small, red font, with a red circle in the middle. The title “Akata Witch” is directly below this in large, black font. Below this, lower right, in smaller, black font, the phrase “a novel”. Large art of a young woman stretches across the centre of the book. She is wearing a black, short sleeved shirt, dark grey pants, and black shoes. In her left hand, she holds a dagger. The dagger is pointing down, and streaks of various bright colours seem to be coming out of the tip. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Bullying
• Murder
• Slavery
• Child Mutilation
• Child Abduction
• Ableism

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Summary:

Akata Witch transports the reader to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is be able to play football and get through another day of school without being bullied. But once she befriends Orlu and Chichi, Sunny is plunged in to the world of the Leopard People, where your worst defect becomes your greatest asset. Together, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi and Sasha form the youngest ever Oha Coven. Their mission is to track down Black Hat Otokoto, the man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. Will Sunny be able to overcome the killer with powers stronger than her own, or will the future she saw in the flames become reality?

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Notes:

This was retitled “What Sunny Saw in the Flames” in the UK and Nigeria. I did check Waterstones for it and it was there under that title.

This is the first book in the series “The Nsibidi Scripts”.

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Archivist Comments:

Majority of people have praised this book from what I’ve seen, although there a few wondering if the content is appropriate for the middle-grade rating. I guess that’s why it’s also rated young adult.

Fun Fact: this was the first non-US centric book suggested to me when I originally started this.

Every piece of cover art I see for this book is just so nice.

People have praised the diversity amongst the backgrounds of the characters, and all the magical and cultural elements that are weaved into the plot. A lot of people seem to be in agreement that while the magic system is interesting, they would have liked it to have been explained a bit more. Also, there were some comments that felt that the ending was a bit rushed and anti-climatic when compared to what the story had been building up

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