“What if I told you that I went to war over my dead best friend’s glowing journal?

Tristan feels like a failure. For one thing, he isn’t the boxer is father wants him to be. But more importantly, his best friend Eddie died, and Tristan didn’t do anything to help him. His anger and guilt is boiling over, causing him to fight at school. So naturally, his folks decide to send Tristan to stay with his grandparents for the summer. Worse yet, his grandparents are driving him all the way to Alabama. “Sitting in an enclosed space with Granddad was like wiping your tears with sandpaper.”

Needless to say, it’s a long trip. But there’s also something really strange going on. You see, Eddie’s journal appears on the seat next to Tristan, even though Tristan was sure that he put it in his duffel bag, which is in the trunk. Stranger still, there’s something weird about the journal. “Before Eddie’s death, the cover of his brown leather journal had always been blank. Now, a weird symbol appeared to be stitched into it ...” Nana sees it and recognizes it right away. “It’s the spider’s web, an old African symbol for creativity and wisdom.”

There’s something strange about his grandparents’ farm, too. As Tristan walks around the grounds, he feels an uneasiness. Something or someone needs help. Tristan hears the words <b>Find it</b> in his head or does he? What is he supposed to find? Then, that night in Tristan’s bedroom, a creature appears, searching for Eddie’s journal. It says it’s name is Gum Baby, which is right out of the Anansi tales. Gum Baby is all of 10 inches tall but has the biggest mouth and the most incredibly belligerent attitude you have ever experienced. Now Gum Baby is about to lead Tristan into another place, where Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox are real and there is an evil presence trying to take over that world.

A challenging read with plenty of plot twists and high adventure. I love the voice of Gum Baby, sassy and rude. The writing it top notch! Tristan makes a journey of self discovery as well as a connection to his family’s roots.

Incredible middle grade fantasy that not only does this tackle the difficult topic of grief, but weaves in African mythology and gives us a sympathetic and strong character to root for through all of his adventures.

My boys loved this book! Such a great story and it’s nice to have different characters and cultures represented. We love mythology and are very well read in Greek mythology, so this was an awesome book that introduced us to different folklore and adventures. Great read!

It's great to finally have a book similar to Percy Jackson with an African American main character. I have a lot of kids I know that will eat this book up. Great story that keeps you turning the page for more.

This book was brilliant. The length is I think a bit long for a middle grade book but besides this I will be recommending it to every person that loves Percy Jackson.

I wanted to like this book so much, but I was disappointed at how much I struggled through it. I’m a big fan of the Rick Riordan Imprint and have read all of them now, and Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky started out strong (no pun intended) with the characteristic energy, fun, and tensions as the others in the imprint.
 
Seventh grader Tristan has been struggling since his best friend, Eddie, died in a bus accident. And now his parents are shipping him from his home in Chicago off to his grandparents’ farm in Alabama for a month, which Tristan is dreading. His grandfather is tough and distant, convinced Tristan is soft because he’s a city kid, and he’s determined to make sure Tristan gets some honest hard work to toughen him up. But things go wrong the very first night when a weird doll-like creature named Gum Baby shows up and steals the only thing of Eddie’s he has left - his journal. He ends up chasing the creature right into a different world with all sorts of creatures who need his help and monsters who are intent on killing them all. In the process, Tristan meets and befriends the legends from black American folktales like John Henry and Brer Rabbit who need his help to save their world as much as he needs theirs to get back to his.

I wanted to love this book, and I love everything about the concept, but after the first few chapters it turned into such a slog. At 500 pages, it feels way too long for a middle grade read, and there was a lot of redundancy to the various battles (how many times does Tristan really need to fight the same bad guys?), and a LOT of dialogue between the various characters (Gum Baby and Tristan have the same arguments over and over). I felt like it needed an editor with a strong hand to really streamline it and keep it moving. 

Overall, I’m bummed out that I didn’t like it more, because the black American folktales all seem fascinating, and Tristan and Gum Baby were both great characters, but the execution of the novel just left me wishing it was about half as long as it is.

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky was a fast-paced adventure that really fits well with the other works that have been published by Rick Riordan presents.  I feel that if I had more knowledge of the tales that the story were based around it would have helped me navigate the world a little better.  I don't think that children will have this same issue though.  Tristan has a really strong voice that is very believable.

I don't even know where to begin with the amazing work that is Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia. I can't gush TOO much, because it's a finalist for the #cybils2019 MG speculative fiction. Suffice to say this book blew me away, and I'm going to need a few moments to compose myself when I do finally get to blog about it. I'm also pretty lucky, because I met author @mbalia1 at BookExpo and he is the nicest guy. He also mentioned that he loves fan art, so seriously, get drawing! #2020books #bookstagram

I enjoyed reading this book, and my middle school readers keep checking it out. I like how I learned more about Western African gods and African-American legends- and I know my students do too.

Tristan Strong Punches the Sky is going to take middle school readers by storm!

This book is just begging to be read aloud. I plan to buy it in audiobook format to listen in the car with my kids. The story initially brings visions of The Watson Go To Birmingham–1963 to mind. I love Tristan’s firsthand account of the world, from his Chicago fighting scene to the middle of his grandparents’ creepy forest. The story is action-packed with a solid dose of teenage humor, a little grief, and a whole lot of spunk.

Special thanks to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. This, however, does not reflect the opinions in my review.

As a fan of mythology and as a dedicated reader of Rick Riordan, I’ve been a voracious reader of the books he endorses through his publishing company Rick Riordan Presents. When I was given early access to Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, I was thrilled! I had never really read much about African mythology or even really any African fold tales, which this book heavily borrows from. I was excited to go into the novel with fresh eyes and learn something new. 

What the story does well is create a lush setting. The worlds of Alke and Midpass are full of interesting characters and it was fun learning about the different folk heroes as they were introduced. Too, we get to see Tristan himself grow as a person throughout the novel. He doesn’t start off at the beginning of the story a hero. He’s scared once he’s thrown into a situation he knows little to nothing about. He feels overwhelmed with the responsibilities set upon him, particularly when the inhabitants of the world he was thrown into look to him for support and to be a hero they’ve been waiting for. What I found most touching, though, was how he dealt with the guilt from a personal loss. At the beginning, he feel consumed by it, unable to deal and simply pushes it aside or lets it anger him to the point of confrontation. Over the course of the story, however, Tristan learns that it’s best to recognize these feelings, to deal with them accordingly, but not to let it ruin the rest of his life. He learns to mourn, but not to wallow in said misery. This, I feel, is an important lesson many children will be forced to face eventually and the novel provides a good method to deal with these feelings. (Also, bonus points for Tristan being in therapy and saying it’s was helping, rather than having him flippantly reject it. It was nice to see real mental health outlets being positively viewed, particularly in a book geared toward children.)
 
However, despite all this, I still felt the novel lacked basic structure. It took too long to get me invested in the story and, once the plot actually started rolling, the pacing felt disjointed. While the worldbuilding was intricately described, the rules of said world weren’t very well defined and I found myself having to double back to read passages to figure out why the characters made certain choices or why the acted in a certain way. It made reading the story all that much more cumbersome. To add to this, I felt that many of the character’s motivations weren’t well described, either. This made for half-baked “heroes” and enemies with lukewarm reasonings for their actions. 

I really wanted to love this book and to sing its praises, but in the end, it just wasn’t for me. I’d love to read another book based on African culture, but I think I’ll pass on the next installments in this series. That said, the world needs more stories revolving around brown protagonists and children, especially, benefit from being exposed to varying cultures. This, if anything, the book succeeds in giving to its audience. It wasn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean that other children – particularly those of color – wouldn’t find it downright riveting. It’ll be joining our library collection for that reason alone.

This book is fantastic and has everything you could want in a middle-grade folklore adventure novel. To date, al of the Rick Riordan Presents books have been good, but this one ranks as one of the best of the bunch. I loved learning more about African mythology and seeing some characters I knew only a little about before reading. I hope that there is a sequel to this novel!

I absolutely love this book 100%. When I finished, I found myself thinking that to my knowledge I had never read a better debut novel. I read the majority of the book in one sitting and kept having to tell people to leave me only for long enough to finish it! Tristan Strong is a very relatable seventh grader who starts the novel struggling with guilt and grief at the death of his unlikely friend Eddie and regret at failing his family's image by losing his first boxing match. From here the story evolves to include displacement from urban life in Chicago to farm life in rural Alabama, fissures into other worlds, African gods, folk gods, monsters, and a mysterious haint (because every good story needs an enigmatic "villian"). All throughout the tale, Tristan is finding himself and messing up EVERYTHING and EVERYONE'S life... or is he?

Since the book is on the long side, I have been recommending this title to my stronger middle grades readers and have so far gotten positive feedback!

A book with a cover as amazing as the one above should be magnificent and Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky did not disappoint!

Tristan Strong is not looking forward to spending the summer on his grandparents’ farm in Alabama, where he’ll try and recover from the loss of his best friend Eddie. All he has left is Eddie’s journal, where Eddie has been faithfully recording down stories that have been passed down through generations. But when the journal starts glowing and a creature attempts to steal it from Tristan, Tristan finds himself falling through sky into a world called MidPass. There, he meets the very gods that Eddie wrote about.

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky was so well written and I really liked Tristan. He felt like such a real character and I think that many readers will be able to relate to him. All of the characters were so well written and had such strong voices, I really admired all of their complexities. The world building in Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky was also really well done. I think the mythology was so well written and many readers will just enjoy this fun, but slightly serious, adventure story.

I also really liked the way this book ended. It ended in a way that didn’t leave too many loose strings so I wanted more but without the agony of a cliffhanger. This amazing first book will make readers want to read more West African mythology and I am so excited for all of the readers who will be able to see themselves in Tristan.

Another entry from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, which publishes novels of contemporary kids interacting with various world mythologies.  This title draws on West African and African-American stories.  In some ways this had more depth than other stories in this imprint, as Tristan faces the death of his best friend in an accident and his own continuing feelings of inadequacy.  However, this strength was also a weakness.  The backstory meant it took awhile to become fully immersed in the mythological world, which ultimately did provide a creative adventure, and then the book ended with many real world problems still unresolved.  While I wasn't overwhelmed by this book, I think it will be popular with Riordan fans.

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley*

(but I wasn't able to finish it before the publication date so I bought a copy and finished reading the print version)

I really enjoyed the humor and unique storytelling of this book. Tristan is a relatable narrator because he has so many doubts about himself and he is truly a reluctant hero. But he finds his strength and really tries to do the right thing.

My only hesitation about buying this book is that it's really long. Many of my students just don't have the reading stamina for such a lengthy book. However, I will probably purchase it and hope that it falls into the hands of the right reader. The cover is certainly very attractive and I think it will pique the interest of a lot of kids.

It took me a shockingly long time to finish this book. It's all about mythology, featuring Anansi and Brer Fox and John Henry. Wonderful stories that I love, woven together and interwoven with more action than a Percy Jackson novel. Seriously, I think that's what got me was the action. I can see this so clearly as a movie because there were so many action scenes. The storytelling pieces, the emotional development of Tristan, it all does come back around at the end to come together really nicely. And even though it is the first novel in a series, it could absolutely stand alone because there is a real ending. The next book will be a full saga all on its own, with the background of the first novel.

Tristan Strong is sent to stay with his grandparents for awhile after his friend Eddie is killed in an accident. On his first night there, a creature steals Eddie's journal and Tristan chases him. He punches a whole into the ground near a bottle tree, breaking one of the bottles and tearing a hole into another realm. He and Gum Baby (the thief) fall into that realm taking the freed haint with them. Tristan finds himself in a world where myths are real. He meets John Henry and Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit. He finds out he is an Ananseem (a storyteller of Anansi). And he discovers that the realm is in deep trouble and that he is the cause of it. The hole he punched in the sky and the haint (Uncle C) that followed have stirred up trouble. Tristan has to work with his new friends to fix what he broke and save the world. Plus he might want to find a way back home. 

I love the idea of this book, but man did it take me forever to read. It is long and packed with a lot of storytelling. I think it could have used some slimming down and I am afraid the audience is going to struggle to get through it. Five hundred pages is a lot for most middle grade readers even Rick Riordan fans. I loved all the African myths come to life, but I wanted a bit less. If this is going to be a series I think some of it could have been saved for sequels.

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky is the latest in a series of books presented by Rick Riordan.  This book concerns African American folklore and West African gods.  Tristan Strong has been shutttled off to his grandparents farm in Alabama.  He has been swamped with grief since he was unable to save his best friend, Eddie, when they were in a bus accident.  Tristan, already unhappy, isn't pleased with the arrangements, especially when he learns early mornings and lots of back-breaking chores are involved.  Then, his first night at the farm is interrupted by  a creature known as "Gum Baby" appears in his room searching for Eddie's journal - the last thing he has to remember Eddie by.  Tristan gives chase and their struggle ends up tearing open - you guessed it - a hole in the sky.  Tristan ends up helping John Henry and Brer Rabbit in their struggle against evil beings who are trying to harm the world.  They need to work together to coax trickster Anansi out of hiding and convince him to seal the hole in the sky before the world as Tristan knows it is ruined.
I've already ordered this book for our library.  Fans of Rick Riordan's mythology series' will love this book as will anyone interested in folklore and mythologyl. Great holiday gift for your middle-school readers.

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky is quite the book (and quite the title).. It has characters that are very likable and humorous. They easily grew on me and I found myself having favorites quite early on in the book.This story fits among Rick Riordan's books, as well as the previous book in the RR Presents series, Tristan Strong. It is an amazing, adventurous story with high stakes that kept me on the edge of my seat during the entire time reading this.

I found the plot fast-paced, but still laying all of the information that is needed. I love all of the details to this book, and everything was described wonderfully. I felt like I was following along with this adventure as if I was in the book myself. Mbmalia's writing style is definitely amazing, his prose is incredible. I found his imagination to be bright and vivid, and it definitely shows in this story. I also found the dialogue of this book to be HILARIOUS!

I enjoyed the adventure of this story and the twists and turns that take place. Just when it seemed the story was heading in one direction, there was a twist and it took off in another direction. Middle grade readers who enjoy plot-directed stories are bound to get a kick out of this one