‘Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky’

This latest offering from Rick Riordan Presents features gods and heroes of Western African mythology, alongside African-American folk legends. The author, Kwame Mbalia, has done a fantastic job assembling a cast of characters that this reader really cared about.

I sympathized with titular hero Tristan Strong, who has a lot of challenges to deal with.

When the story opens, Tristan has lost his best friend Eddie, who was killed in a bus accident. Tristan can’t help feel as though he should have been able to save Eddie, and he valiantly protects Eddie’s notebook of stories, the only thing of Eddie’s he has left.

Tristan is also dealing with the shame of having lost his first boxing match. This is a big deal because Tristan’s father was a renowned boxer, so Tristan has to deal with feelings of letting down the family legacy.

With these emotional burdens, Tristan is sent to stay with his grandparents in the Alabama countryside.

Much of Tristan’s awareness of African folktales and mythology came via stories told to him by his grandmother. These stories take on new life one night when a “talking doll,” the Gum Baby, tries to steal Eddie’s notebook. When Tristan intervenes to prevent the theft, he’s swept away to a magical adventure.

The essential quest of this book is that Tristan and his comrades need to find the Spider God, Anansi, so that he can repair the sky. By breaking a bottle that was hanging from a Bottle Tree, Tristan allowed a malevolent spirit to get free.

I enjoyed this story, which was fast-paced with good character development. And as it’s first in a series, I look forward to future volumes with Tristan Strong. Among possible themes, I’m looking for possible back-story concerning Tristan's grandmother. What glimpses I saw intrigued me, concerning her connection to the heroes of mythology — or at least her knowledge of their stories.

I received a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley