DNF - I liked the concept of this story and certainly the target reader will find an engaging tale in this book; this just didn't work for me when I tried it.

Well, this turned out to be a great find. Our Chosen One heroine is modest and engaging. Her posse of sidekicks is a varied and congenial crew. The book has a full-on Percy Jackson vibe, but when you add the fascinating bits of Kenyan culture, religion, and mythology you end up with a fresh and rewarding new take. I'd be happy to hand this to any young reader who is attracted to myth and legend based action/adventure, and friendship, tales.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

This is a great novel for the global schools I work with. Like so many of their students, Mwikali is a third culture kid, a TCK, coming to live in the passport country where she was born but that feels very much like a foreign land. I love that she's Kenyan. So many of the TCK characters in books are American or British. In many ways, Nguru's book follows a tried and true pattern: a group of kids discovers that they have unique powers and learns to work together to defeat evil. Of course, as with any good series, the evil is only temporarily defeated in this first book. It's a good sign that I already am wishing for the next in the series. As an adult reader, I did feel like there were a few plot gaps, especially in terms of what happened to Mwikali's dad. But these are easy to overlook as readers get caught up in the engaging characters, authentic Kenyan setting, and a fascinating fantasy story with a lot of action. Recommended for fans of Aru Shah and Tristan Strong.

This Middle Grade fantasy tells the story of Mwikali, a young girl who has traveled and moved to many different schools, seeing as her mother works for an airline. She feels unsure about returning to Kenya, the place she was born, but hopes that this change may mean she will fit in better than in some of her previous schools. Mwikali enjoys drawing, but she is worried that her pictures are going to predict the future. In her old school, she drew a picture of her best friend in the hospital, and then her friend ended up needing to be hospitalized. As a result, she is afraid to make friends in her new school and worried that someone might find out about the power of her drawings. As the story progresses she learns that she descends from a group of legendary warriors in Kenya and that her drawing power might just be real.

I love the cultural and geographical elements of this story, as it will bring readers to new places to learn about different groups of people. I also like that it is a fantasy but it is set in the real world. I think this is perfect for middle grade readers! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

E ARC provided by Netgalley

Mwikali's mother has traveled around the world working for an airline, so she has attended many different schools. She is apprehensive about moving back to Kenya, where her mother is from and where she was born, although it's also a little bit of a relief to think that perhaps she will finally fit in somewhere. She is enrolled in the prestigious Savanna Academy and has an Auntie (a nanny) who gets her off to school when her mother has to travel for work, but she's still worried about an incident that occurred at her old school. Mwikali loves to draw and has a sketchbook that her mother gave her, but when she drew a picture of her best friend in the hospital, she ended up there in real life. Mwikali blames herself and is afraid to make other friends because of it. At school, she has an odd interaction with some of her classmates, who leave her a note that say "We know what you are."! Because she has already run afoul of a prefect, Charo, who has already caused her to miss her bus home, Mwikali is not in a rush to get to know Soni, Odwar and Xirsi. However, they tell her that she is descended from an ancient bloodline of legendary Kenyan warriors, the Intasimi, and that she doesn't cause things to happen by drawing them, but is just predicting what will be. The children have looked to Mr. Lemayian for help honing their powers. Mwikali is a seer, and the others have various supernatural gifts. When they realize that the Red Oloibon has been released and the only way to stop him from wreaking his evil upon the world is to find the Forbidden Mask and destroy it, the four are willing to try to accomplish this within the very small time frame they have, even though their powers aren't refined. In the process, Mwikali finds out about her grandmothers, father, and Kenyan heritage as well as some of the legends surrounding her powers. Will the four be able to save the world before nightfall?
Strengths: I love reading books set in other parts of the world and getting small details like bubblegum flavored milk boxes, Kenya's Jamhuri Day, and the public transportation. Mwikali's itinerant childhood and international upbringing will speak to some of my students who have a similar background and be a revalation to other readers who have never left Ohio. Her apprehension about her new school is realistic, but it's good to see that she quickly makes friends, and she remains positive. The fact that her powers and some needed artifacts were tied to her unknown family history added another layer of interest.
Weaknesses: There was a fairly standard middle grade fantasy; children get powers in middle school and have to use them to save the world. I knew immediately who the villain would be.
What I really think: This book is a good choice for readers who want to try fantasy books but haven't read too many of them, and who are interested in life in different parts of the world. Young readers who are just sure that they will soon get an invitation to hone their own magical powers, like the characters in Clayton's The Marvelers, Dumas' Wildseed Witch, and Okogwu's Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun will root for Mwikali as she navigates a new middle school while saving the world!

Added the title to Goodreads but the series information needs to be added.

This was a beautifully done fantasy children's novel, it does what I wanted from this type of book. I enjoyed this as a standalone book and as a beginning to the Intasimi Warriors series. Shiko Nguru has a great writing style and I enjoyed the way she created realistic characters. I look forward to both more from the series and from Ms. Nguru

"You can hide a lot behind a smile. And as Mwikali stood in front of the mirror that morning, she practiced all the
different types of smiles she could think of."