Ship of Souls got its first *starred* review! Here’s what the reviewer for Booklist had to say:
Eleven-year-old Dmitri, aka “D,” doesn’t fit in anywhere. After his single mother died three months ago,
he was taken in by an elderly white foster mom who also cares for a crack-addicted infant. At school, D’s
the smartest kid around, yet worries constantly that he’s not “black enough.” So it’s an oddball twist of
fate the afternoon he finds himself birdwatching with pierced military brat Nyla and basketball star,
Hakeem. A bond of friendship is solidified when D confides in them a secret: he has found a one-of-a-kind
“bird,” though it’s really not a bird—it’s a being named Nuru that has asked D to help her rescue the souls
of dead soldiers located at Manhattan’s African Burial Ground. Urban fantasies are nothing rare, but few
mesh gritty realism with poetic mysticism so convincingly. By turns sad, joyful, frightening, funny, and
inspirational, Elliott’s second novel is a marvel of tone and setting, creating a universe where angry
corpses and rock-monsters are every bit as expected as dirty subways and bag ladies. Issues of war,
poverty, racism, Islam, and 9/11 do not bog down the telling but instead enrich it. Different readers will
take away different messages, all of them powerful—quite an accomplishment for so few pages.
— Daniel Kraus
To my knowledge, there weren’t any dead soldiers buried in the African Burial Ground, but other than that, I’m *thrilled* with this review. Found out today that Kirkus passed because they didn’t have enough lead time…but hopefully more great reviews are yet to come.
Congratulations and well deserved! Looking forward to reviewing it for The Pirate Tree.
Thanks, Lyn! I’m *still* waiting on the cover image–they made last-minute changes–but it should be ready by the end of this week. Will get it to you ASAP!
Fantastic! I’m looking forward to reading many more such positive reviews (and writing my own, of course.)
Thanks, Amy!
Congratulations, Zetta. I hope it will be followed up with many more ***** reviews.
Congrats, well deserved!
Great review! I’m looking forward to reading it. By the way, I like the no-cover cover. Kind of classy, but I can see where a middle grader might need a little more enticement.
Thanks, everybody. Shellie, the cover is up on Amazon’s site, but the font needs to be retouched so that’s why I haven’t posted it yet:
http://www.amazon.com/Ship-Souls-Zetta-Elliott/dp/1612182682/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328136454&sr=1-1
Yay, it’s beautiful! Okay, I can see why you want a real cover like that. Looking forward to the 28th.
Congratulations Zetta! I think dream time is taking flight:)
This is such good news! Congratulations!
Serious congratulations are in order, Zetta! I’m so glad they enjoyed the book as much as I and the AFBG staff did!
-Cyrus
Thanks! Cyrus–I was *just* about to blog about your fantastic walking tour yesterday. I hope Ship of Souls leads more young people to the AFBG–and your Maritcha Lyons tour!
I’m excited to read it, Zetta. Congratulations!