Ato is a boy of science, like his father. Since his father has died, however, his mother has joined a local religious group called The Prophet. And she insists that her mother-in-law, Ato's grandmother, is a witch. Ato doesn't know what to think, and he would rather focus on a project for a science contest. The prize is a trip to Nnoma, a sanctuary that his father created. Seems straightforward, but someone or something is poisoning a community garden and the land around it. Ato and his friends know that it's not witchcraft or evil spirits; their parents believe it is. So they have to solve the mystery and figure out what human cruelty is masquerading as a supernatural curse.

This story talks about what grief can do, and how we process it. Ato misses his dad and wants to honor his legacy; his mother also misses her husband and turns to religion for comfort. Meanwhile, Ato's grandmother misses her son and keeps furniture where he sat to honor his memory. In the wrong hands, someone can manipulate that grief.

A wonderful middle grade story that is equal parts magical and rooted in the reality of climate change and how it affects us all. I found the characters to be super charming and easy to root for and I could relate to so many of the themes around friendship and family,

A beautiful story of a boy in Ghana and how he brings the shards of his history back together with courage and heart. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

Baitie captures the setting wonderfully - I’ve been making an effort to read more MG books set in Africa, where I’m from, and this one didn’t disappoint. It struck a great balance between teaching the reader new things and making them long to find out more while at the same time being accessible enough to engage young readers. This accessibility, the way it connects to your heartstrings, is tied to the themes of this novel and how skilfully Baitie weaves them through the story. We see, and feel, how Ato (our main character) is shaped by his family, community, and the environment, and how his courage and determination manage to help all three of those, with a mystery… that’s not really the focus of the story and more a vessel from which to explore its themes while making the plot engaging. A lovely concept, one that I haven’t seen used too often in MG, and executed perfectly.

Pick this up if you’re looking for a heartfelt but not extremely heavy MG novel in a setting that will be unfamiliar and engaging to most readers, a novel that will reach out to you with its brave, vivid characters, who use their values and friendships to fight to make their community a better place. A lot of lessons to be learnt from this one, but it doesn’t preach them- it whispers, asks us to listen, and I think you’ll find that, like me, you’ll want to keep your ears wide open.