Black magic for Black kids!

Book #3 in the City Kids series is here! We first met Zaria in Book #1 but now she has left Brooklyn behind to visit her beloved England—the source of all magic! Or so she thinks…

Zaria has dreamed of England for as long as she can remember—according to the many novels she’s read, everything magical happens there! When her grandfather suffers a stroke, Zaria and her mother head to London to help care for him. Zaria reads fantastic tales to her grandfather every afternoon, and she’s thrilled to discover that her cousin Winston shares her love of wands, wizards, and mythical creatures. But Zaria soon finds that life in London is actually quite ordinary—until she goes on a day trip to nearby Windsor Castle. There Zaria meets two extraordinary ghosts who need help finding their way back to the African continent they once called home.

THE GHOSTS IN THE CASTLE takes readers back in time to nineteenth-century England when two African children, Sarah Forbes Bonetta and Prince Alemayehu, were taken from their homes (in present day Nigeria and Ethiopia respectively) and “presented” to Queen Victoria. Although the children arrived at different times, this story imagines their ghosts jointly haunting Windsor Castle and arguing over the advantages and disadvantages of “a British education.” When African American Zaria meets the two ghosts, she is forced to reconsider the image of England presented in the fantasy novels she has consumed uncritically. With the help of her cousin, Zaria helps to liberate the melancholy young prince from his final resting place (though his remains are still at Windsor Castle despite requests for repatriation by the Ethiopian government). In the era of Harry Potter, THE GHOSTS IN THE CASTLE offers children important context for understanding the legacy of imperialism, the ongoing struggle for equitable and accurate representation, and the universal desire to belong.

Learn more about The Ghosts in the Castle in my latest newsletter. You can order a copy from CreateSpace, Amazon, from the Kindle store, and it will be available from bookstores soon…