African Magic

For most kids, catching fireflies is a fun summer activity. For twelve-year-old Serwa Boateng, it's a matter of life and death. That's because Serwa knows that some fireflies are really adze, shapeshifting vampires from the forests of Southeastern Ghana. Adze prey on the blood of innocents, possessing their minds and turning them into hulking monsters, and for generations, slayers like Serwa and her parents have protected an unknowing public from their threats.

On the day of the Harvest Festival, the old woman who lives in the forest appears in Abeni's village with a terrible message: You ignored my warnings. It’s too late to run. They are coming. Warriors with burning blades storm the village. A man with a cursed flute plays an impossibly alluring song. And everyone Abeni has ever known and loved is captured and marched toward far-off ghost ships set for even more distant lands. But not Abeni. Abeni is magically whisked away by the old woman.

Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power. When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage. What she doesn't know is that a baby will soon be delivered—by her niece, Amara—and delivered to the Melancons to raise as their own.

Set in Nigeria in the late 1960s, The Road to the Country is the epic story of a shy, bookish student haunted by long-held guilt who must go to war to free himself. When his younger brother disappears as the country explodes in civil war, Kunle must set out on an impossible rescue mission. Kunle’s search for his brother becomes a journey of atonement that will see him conscripted into the breakaway Biafran army and forced to fight a war he hardly understands, all while navigating the prophecies of a local Seer, he who marks Kunle as an abami eda—one who will die and return to life.

How far will a mother go to turn Christmas joy into back-to-school readiness? And what happens when her solution risks taking away the very thing that makes her child feel special? Kemunto is no stranger to tough decisions. As a hardworking mother in a rural African village, she’s mastered the art of stretching every coin just to get by. But when her son Mogaka’s beloved gray Christmas shoes—his pride, his confidence, his magic—don’t meet the school’s strict uniform rules, Kemunto is faced with a new kind of dilemma. To Mogaka, those shoes help him run faster, dream bigger, and ...

All 13-year-old Izzy wants to do is get through this family camping trips as soon as possible, so she can get back to hanging out with her friends. But when she and a group of campers get lost in Glacier National Park, Izzy’s only thought is if they can make it out alive before the snow sets in. Deep in the forest, Izzy and her new friends are thrown into a world of magic, witches, wolves and shape shifters as they struggle against the forces of nature and magic.

Are you fascinated by the subject of voodoo? Did you know that it’s much more than it is portrayed in the media? Would you like to learn more about it? Voodoo holds a place in our psyche like few other religions or beliefs and is something that has been misunderstood by people through many generations. Far more than sticking pins in dolls, as is often depicted in films and books, Louisiana voodoo has a rich history that is as exciting as it is complex.

I loved you… until… A disastrous wedding left two families in turmoil. When the bride and groom-to-be both go missing after the catastrophe that was their nuptials, the families have to come together to find them. Lafyette “Fee” Wallace fled her wedding after her sister’s jealousy caused her to come crashing down from Cloud 9. Comatose and unaware of the trouble brewing back home, she may end up losing her life before she even truly gets to live. Jévon McCoy made one mistake on a drunken night that cost him the love of his life and future wife. He was now being forced to pay for ...

When the windshield of his Chevy Impala shatters in a dark diner parking lot in Alabama, Melvin moves without thinking. A split-second reaction marrows in his bones from the days of war, but this time it is the safety of his fiancé, Bernadette, at stake. Impulse keeps them alive, and yet they flee with blood on their hands. What is life like now that they are fugitives? Pack passports. Empty bank accounts. Set their old life on fire. The couple disguise themselves as a pastor and a reluctant pastor’s wife who’s hiding a secret from her fiancé.

In this glittering triptych novel, Suzette, Maple and Agnes, three Black women with albinism, call Shreveport, Louisiana home. At the bustling crossroads of the American South and Southwest, these three women find themselves at the crossroads of their own lives. A searing meditation on grief, female strength, and self‑discovery, Nobody's Magic is a testament to the power of family—the ones you're born into and the ones you choose. And in these three narratives, among the yearning and loss, each of these women may find a seed of hope for the future.

Solstice Winters never expected her job as a photojournalist would involve stopping a death god. She’s only ever wanted the same things as anyone else—a nice career, a safe place to call home, and no magical assassins trying to kill her. Alas, there’s nothing like an unexpected dimensional misalignment to ruin plans. The rapid flood of magic into the world changed her from simple reporter to secret agent in mere months. It also revealed the truth of her being an elf. Her investigation into who wants her dead stalls when a paranormal entity shows up in her apartment pleading for help. ...

A CHRISTIAN SUSPENSE ABOUT SPIRITUAL WARFARE. When it comes to “falling in love,” you can't help who you fall in love with. This is the sobering reality of Malik Harrington, the wealthy heir of a well-known preacher, who falls hard for Isabella Chavez, the stunning daughter of one of the hired help. But unbeknownst to Malik, Gina Wheaton, the main organist at his father’s church, is obsessed with becoming his wife to the point of seeking assistance from the “dark side.” Gina wants Malik and she will do whatever it takes to get him. As if Malik doesn’t already face enough of a ...

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker - and they sure do love to talk. Now she speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to those they left behind. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children - leaving them husks, empty of joy and strength. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will rock her world.

From Vanessa Brantley-Newton, the author of Grandma's Purse, comes a collection of poetry filled with engaging mini-stories about girls of all kinds: girls who feel happy, sad, scared, powerful; girls who love their bodies and girls who don't; country girls, city girls; girls who love their mother and girls who wish they had a father. This book invites listeners to find themselves and each other within.

FACE THE STORM. Book 4 in the prize poly Sleeping Lotus series.... Jaded and betrayed, Raena Barren walks on eggshells, trying to keep her fellow spies from stabbing her in her sleep. They’re jealous of her fast rise through their hierarchy, and some dangerous people want her to stay put. But when someone she cares about gets a knife in the back, the only way to save him is to keep up the pace. And to rank again, Raena will have to face her greatest fear yet: she will have to share a bed with Jaen Portent. But this calculating, cold-eyed man has his own set of secrets… and Raena finds ...

In the gentle folds of Nana Afia's kente cloth lie the stories of a continent, the whispers of the ancestors, and the magic of history brought to life. Amavi, with the bright-eyed wonder of youth, finds herself chosen by the cloth, her touch awakening its ancient power and sending her spiraling through the epochs of Africa's vast and varied past. Travel alongside Amavi as she traverses the realms of mighty empires and scholarly sanctuaries. Stand with her in the bustling markets of Ghana, under the scholarly shade of Timbuktu's libraries, amidst the grandeur of Great Zimbabwe, and on the ...

The third and final part in the Konga Trilogy. In this installment, the chains of balance have been destroyed. An entity dark, evil and extremely benign has been unleashed on the earth realm destroying everything in its wake. Konga and Yetunde set out across the barren wasteland the earth has become to find a way to ignite the true power in the Staff of Obatala to save humanity's few survivors from total annihilation

Everyone’s favorite fifteen-year-old ghostalker, Ropa, arrives at the worldwide Society of Skeptical Enquirers’ biennial conference just in time to be tied into a mystery—a locked room mystery, if an entire creepy haunted castle on lockdown counts. One of the magical attendees has stolen a valuable magical scroll. Caught between Qozmos, the high wizard of Ethiopian magic; the larger-than-life Lord Sashvindu Samarasinghe; England’s Sorcerer Royal; and Scotland’s own Edmund MacLeod, it’s up to Ropa to sort through the dangerous secret politics and alliances to figure out what really happened.

"Where are the lions?" Jack wonders when the Magic Tree House whisks him and his sister to the vast plains of Africa. Before he can find out, Annie starts to help hundreds of wildebeests cross a rushing river. Next they follow a honey of a bird and meet an awesome Masai warrior. Jack hopes any lions will just stay away. Jack is about to be very disappointed.

Alicia has been out of grad school for months. She has no career prospects and lives with her mom, who won’t stop texting her macabre news stories and reminders to pick up items from the grocery store. Then, one evening, the Jamaican water deity River Mumma appears to Alicia, telling her that she has twenty-four hours to scour the city for her missing comb. Alicia doesn’t understand why River Mumma would choose her. She can’t remember all the legends her relatives told her, unlike her retail co-worker Heaven, who can reel off Jamaican folklore by heart.