What Sunny Saw in the Flames
by Nnedi Okorafor
Interest age: 12 to 15
Reading age: 10+
Published by Cassava Republic, 2016
About this book
Sunny has always been different. With her milky skin and yellow hair, she doesn’t look as though she belongs in her Nigerian family. When she sees a vision of an apocalyptic future in a candle flame, Sunny begins to wonder if she is going mad.
Then she is introduced to the Leopard People and becomes part of a secret world of magic, monsters, spells and shape-shifting. But the pleasure she finds in her new environment is tempered by the fact that she has to hide it from her family and then put herself in great danger to try and stop a ruthless child-killer.
Set in contemporary Nigeria, this is a magical fantasy story with a difference. Drawing on traditional belief systems and juju, Sunny’s story explores some dark aspects of West African culture and uses them to develop a wildly imaginative supernatural world.
More books like this
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Rebel of the Sands
by Alwyn Hamilton
11 to 14 years
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Children of Blood and Bone
by Tomi Adeyemi
11 to 14 years
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Sunny and the Mysteries of Osisi
by Nnedi Okorafor
11 to 14 years
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The Boy to Beat the Gods
by Ashley Thorpe
9 to 14 years
Lists of recommended reads
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BookTrust Represents: Teen
BookTrust Represents is our programme created to promote children’s authors and illustrators of colour. Books play an important role as mirrors for children: these stories and characters will affect how they see themselves and the world around them, their motivation to read, and their aspirations to become authors and illustrators of the future. However, finding books that truly reflect the diversity of families in the UK is challenging. Over the past 11 years, fewer than 2% of all authors and/or illustrators of children's books published in the UK were British people of colour. As part of the project we have put together this booklist highlighting some of our favourite teen/ya books by authors and illustrators of colour.
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Magical stories for teens
These books are brilliant for teenagers who want to get lost in a magical journey. There are classics and new titles, picture books and chapter books and some books containing magic realism rather than traditional fantasy.