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Welcome to confession time dear readers, this may be yet another month that I don’t finish my book for Virtual Book Club. But does it count if it’s the second time this year that I’m reading A Court of Silver Flames? I say no! Finish, don’t finish, it’s all good as long as you’re open for spoilers AND SIGN UP HERE to join us on Friday, July 16 at 7:30 pm CST for More Maas at virtual book club when we’ll discuss all things Nesta and Cassian!
I think I first heard of Tristan Strong when one of my people picked up one of the series off the new books shelf in our local library. I saw the “Rick Riordan Presents” and immediately knew it would be a quality read and then did not concern myself until it was time to go to the library again and Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia was deemed “done” and the bookmark (aptly called, in this case, a quitter strip) was removed. I remember wondering why anything Rick Riordan was presenting was returned DNF instead of well-loved, and reading the jacket copy and wondering some more. Like AA (Aunt Ashley), my people LOVE mythology. They have consumed their older cousin’s handed down copies of many a Rick Riordan book, they have gotten the subsequent titles from the library, they love their dad’s old copy of Favorite Greek Myths retold by Mary Pope Osborne, and they’ve even gotten into such series as The Goddess Girls. So, I say with confidence, they will be revisiting Tristan and his story, and I will use their granny’s (iron) bottle tree (whose “purpose” I did know, but history I did not) to my advantage.
Tristan Strong is a boy from Chicago, who is going to spend the summer on his fraternal grandparents’ farm in Alabama. He’s going to work to distract himself from losing his first boxing match a few days ago, and his best friend in a bus crash during the winter. He has one item of his best friend’s – his journal where they wrote stories together – and on Tristan’s first night in Alabama, Gum Baby (yes, that Gum Baby) comes to steal it from Tristan. Chaos, drama, action, and a generally wild ride ensue. We meet an assortment of characters from African and African American mythology including John Henry, Brer Fox, Brer Rabbit, Anansi, High John, and more as Tristan and Gum Baby travel through their mythological world on a quest to save us all.
Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky has action, adventure, mystery, and character development, and I’m really interested to know what happens in the next installment of Tristan’s story. While some of the characters and their stories were familiar to me, High John’s was not, and there were some other characters whose stories I will be researching more on my own. Just as with Riordan’s books based on Egytptian and Norse mythology, I’m not as familiar with the inspiration for Kwame Mbalia’s debut middle-grade novel and it was a joy to learn from him through his lyrical prose. Mbalia also peppers in wisdom, like a subtle mic drop such as:
“Everybody has a story, Nana used to say when I was younger. Listen to it, and they’ll be friendly. Engage with it, and they’ll be your friend.”
And
“it was my job to carry the stories of the land to its people. All the stories. If we ignored the past, how would we learn from it?”
Would that we could all internalize these ideas, and how special that there is an action series, based in African and Black mythology, written by a Black man, with a Black boy as the titular character! We have made it no secret that Ashley and I tend to read white women authors and we are trying to include more men and Black, Indiginous, and People of Color in the authors who speak into our lives. Mbalia is a new and welcome voice, and I’m very interested in what else he has to say.
While I am giving Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky what feels like only three stars, I’m hesitant to do so and want to explain. This book is written for middle graders, and while I enjoyed it, I found the action a lot for me, for now. I think a reader who likes more action will love this book, and I think I’d have enjoyed it more another time. Finding the right book at the right time is a very real thing and has definitely contributed to my love of some of my all-time favorites. If you feel like this book is potentially for you or your people and my rating is giving you pause, don’t let it. It’s definitely me, not the book, and I’ve already put the rest of the series on my TBR and am anxiously awaiting Tristan Strong Keeps Punching (#3) which is due out in October. I may wait until then to put the series back in front of my people, because I think they will love them, and learn a lot of things from Tristan and Mbalia.
What have you read, paused, and loved later because the timing wasn’t right?
~Nikki
I think Kwame Mbalia and I could be friends In Real Life. Why? Because his personal bio ends with this stellar closing statement: “A Howard University graduate and a Midwesterner now in North Carolina, he survives on Dad jokes and Cheezits.” I, and the cats at my house, love some CheezIts. I also love a good pun and if it’s so terribly corny to be considered a Dad Joke that’s a-ok with me. Even better than his closing sentence is the opener: “Kwame is a husband, father, writer, a New York Times bestselling author, and a former pharmaceutical metrologist in that order.” His published works include the Tristan Strong series, Last Gate of the Emperor co-written with Prince Joel Makonnen, and the anthology he edited and which releases in August, Black Boy Joy. I am excited about this title for several reasons, most of which are found in this part of the marketing copy: “From seventeen acclaimed Black male and non-binary authors comes a vibrant collection of stories, comics, and poems about the power of joy and the wonders of Black boyhood.” This is why Nikki and I read books about and books by authors who are different than we are, to understand all the ways humanity can feel joy and wonder at the world we live in. The part that excites me about this title that isn’t included in that sentence is the list of authors which includes Kwame Mbalia and Lamar Giles whose book Not So Pure and Simple we discussed in February for Black History Month.
Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky is a rollicking non-stop adventure and I truly enjoyed the mixture of page turning action with short pauses for character development. Tristan has to handle lots of heavy emotions that adults have trouble working through, especially regarding the memory of his best friend Eddie. Tristan brings up the way his therapist helped him discuss Eddie’s death (not a spoiler, it’s in the first chapter!) which helps normalize the fact that all people need help working through their own emotions to better themselves and their mental health. Tristan spends the whole book trying to figure out how to balance doing what is expected of him, doing what he feels he wants or needs to do, and doing what he physically and emotionally CAN do. It’s not stated in the book in this way, but you can feel his internal struggle. That’s what makes a great, relatable character. Additionally, I related to Tristan’s need to punch things to work out his inner struggles. I’m a big fan of punching a bag for stress relief (and so are Nesta and Cassian so we’ll definitely be discussing this concept TOMORROW at Virtual Book Club!).
I, like Nikki, am going to give Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky three stars, It should probably be 3.5, I’m having trouble justifying the rounding up to 4 stars as is my usual MO. My biggest struggle, and the reason I read books like this, is I didn’t come into the book with a solid knowledge base of the mythology. The following books in the series will be an easier read for me because I’ll have the knowledge gained after reading the first book! I definitely want to see where Tristan’s adventures take him.
Is there a character you relate to based on the way they work out their emotions while they workout?
~Ashley
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