Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun

Tolá Okogwu's Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun is a superhero adventure for 8 year olds about a girl whose enormous hair turns out to be a superpower.

What happens

Onyeka lives in London with her mum, who has one rule above all the others. Never lose control. So whenever her feelings start to rise, Onyeka counts through a special sequence of numbers until they settle (each number has its own colour and taste, which is a lovely detail).

Her hair is the thing everyone stares at. It's huge, it breaks combs, and her mum would rather nobody saw it. So at her best friend Cheyenne's pool party, it's crammed under a spotty swimming cap. She looks like Toad from Super Mario, apparently.

Then Cheyenne gets into trouble in the water. Onyeka can barely swim herself, and as they both sink, her hair does something impossible.

After that, the secrets come tumbling out. Her mum tells her she's Solari, with powers she's inherited from the father she knows almost nothing about. Before long they're heading back to Nigeria to find out what happened to him.

Onyeka tells the story herself, and she sounds like a real London girl. She's sharp and funny ("rah", "fam", "proper") and a bit lonely too. The best scenes are between her and her mum. Her mum is strict and frightened and loves her fiercely, and their rows feel very real.

The Nigeria in this book is a powerful nation that runs on solar energy. So it's a world a lot like ours, just not quite.

A few things to be ready for. The pool scene is tense, with Cheyenne slipping under the water and Onyeka sure they're both going to drown. Her mum shakes her hard in one row, and there's a little mild swearing. None of it's heavy, but a child who's nervous around water might want to know that scene is coming.

If your reader has ever felt like the one everybody stares at, Onyeka will probably feel like a friend. And if they just want a superhero who's great at a comeback, that works too!

What to read next

For another kid raised by a single mum far from the country his family came from, who finds out his heritage comes with powers of its own, try Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor.