From the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winning author Kwame Alexander, comes the first book in a searing, breathtaking trilogy that tells the story of a boy, a village, and the epic odyssey of an African family.
In his village in Upper Kwanta, 11-year-old Kofi loves his family, playing oware with his grandfather and swimming in the river Offin. He’s warned though, to never go to the river at night. His brother tells him ”There are things about the water you do not know. “ Like what? Kofi asks. “The beasts.” His brother answers.
One fateful night, the unthinkable happens and in a flash, Kofi’s world turns upside down. Kofi soon ends up in a fight for his life and what happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves.
This spellbinding novel by the author of The Crossover and Booked will take you on an unforgettable adventure that will open your eyes and break your heart.
The Door of No Return is an excellent choice for independent reading, sharing in the classroom, book groups, and homeschooling.
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Kwame Alexander's story, The Door of No Return, humanizes the experience of the people who knew the flavors of freedom long before they knew the sting of slavery. Alexander lures you in and endears you to Kofi and his world in a way that has you fully invested in time and place. Alexander seems to trust the heaviness of history to hold its own, and so he is able to tell a story with such a lightness of foot which only further emphasizes that weight of history that is undeniable and irrevocable. His writing is at once vivid and simple, lyrical and surgical, expressive and exacting, comforting and cutting. It hypnotizes and sobers, hypnotizes and sobers, in a rhythm as timeless as the talking drum that carries the tales of his people: Kum-PUM PUM! Kum-PUM PUM! I wish this book existed alongside Huckleberry Finn when I was in school. I am glad it exists now!
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Lupita Nyong’o, Actress and Author