Know a child who’s into folklore, mystery and intrigue? Consider adding these books to their library
Unlike years of old, today there is a wide array of children’s books by Caribbean authors to choose from.
What I love even more, is that these literary offerings can be found in every imaginable genre/category.
Here’s a list of mystery and adventure books that my seven-year-old is almost certain every child who’s into a bit of adventure is likely to enjoy.
ZO AND THE FOREST OF SECRETS by Alake Pilgrim
When Zo decides to run away from home, she isn’t scared; after all, she knows the island like the back of her hand. But, as she journeys through the once-familiar forest, terrifying creatures and warped visions begin to emerge. With a beast on her heels and a lost boy thrown into her path, could a mysterious abandoned facility hold answers?
Zo must unravel the secrets of the forest before she is lost in them forever…
THE SECRETS OF OSCUROS: The Protectors Pledge by Danielle Y.C McClean
A fast-paced adventure set deep in a Caribbean forest with a hero who must risk everything to save the forest and his village.
Twelve-year-old JV can’t wait to spend his vacation exploring the Oscuros Forest. True, everyone in the village of Alcavere believes the Oscuros Forest is a place to be feared, inhabited by dangerous and magical beings. But JV is not afraid, even when his first trip into the forest brings him face-to-face with a mysterious creature.
Then the disappearance of one of their own shakes the village and JV joins the search. He finds himself deep in the Oscuros Forest on a rescue mission and committed to a promise, a promise which the Protectors of the forest insist he keeps no matter how dangerous things get.
Can JV complete his daring quest even as he uncovers in the process, a shocking secret that will force him to question everything he thought he knew?
THE SECRETS OF OSCUROS: The Whisperers Warning
12-year-old JV is learning just how much truth lies behind those words.
He has discovered that he’s one of a select few entrusted with preserving the balance between the world’s natural and unnatural realms and is now more driven than ever to know who his birth parents are. But there’s another mystery in the usually quiet village of Alcavere that he can’t ignore. He and his friends, Carol and Riaz, have received a cryptic warning from a supernatural being who dwells in the Oscuros Forest, launching them into a high-stakes mission. Can they solve the riddle and protect a villager from the foretold doom before time runs out?
THE JUMBIES by Tracey Baptiste
Corinne La Mer claims she isn’t afraid of anything. Not scorpions, not the boys who tease her, and certainly not jumbies. They’re just tricksters made up by parents to frighten their children. Then one night Corinne chases an agouti all the way into the forbidden forest, and shining yellow eyes follow her to the edge of the trees. They couldn’t belong to a jumbie. Or could they?
When Corinne spots a beautiful stranger at the market the very next day, she knows something extraordinary is about to happen. When this same beauty, called Severine, turns up at Corinne’s house, danger is in the air. Severine plans to claim the entire island for the jumbies. Corinne must call on her courage and her friends and learn to use ancient magic she didn’t know she possessed to stop Severine and to save her island home.
RISE OF THE JUMBIES by Tracey Baptiste
Deep beneath the waves, a great enemy awakens . . .
Corinne LaMer defeated the wicked jumbie Severine months ago, but things haven’t exactly gone back to normal in her Caribbean island home. Everyone knows Corinne is half-jumbie, and many of her neighbors treat her with mistrust. When local children begin to go missing, snatched from the beach and vanishing into wells, suspicious eyes turn to Corinne. To rescue the missing children and clear her own name, Corinne goes deep into the ocean to find Mama D’Leau, the dangerous jumbie who rules the sea. But Mama D’Leau’s help comes with a price. Corinne and her friends Dru, Bouki, and Malik must travel with mermaids across the ocean to fetch a powerful object for Mama D’Leau. The only thing more perilous than Corinne’s adventures across the sea is the jumbie that waits for her back home. With action-packed storytelling and inventive twists on Caribbean and West African mythology and fairy tales, Rise of the Jumbies is a breathlessly exciting tale of courage and friendship.
THE JUMBIE GODS REVENGE by Tracey Baptiste
The scariest and most heart-pounding installment of the highly praised and popular Jumbies series!
Huracan summons the wind and rain and wields lightning like a sword. He doesn’t miss and he never falters. He will destroy everything in his path if he desires.
When an out-of-season hurricane sweeps through Corinne’s seaside village, she knows it’s not an ordinary storm. At first Corinne believes Mama D’Leau, the powerful and cruel jumbie who rules the ocean, has caused the hurricane. Then an even more ferocious storm wrecks the island, sending villagers fleeing their houses for shelter in the mountains, and Corinne discovers the chaos wasn’t caused by a jumbie, but by an angry god, Huracan.
Corinne, with the help of her friends and even some of her enemies, must race against time to find out what has angered Huracan and try to fix it before her island home is destroyed forever.
The Jumbie God’s Revenge blends Caribbean and West African tales to present powerful themes of community and heroism in a thrilling action adventure.
This list would not be complete without the YARASTAR trilogy by Jeanelle Frontin.
THE UNMARKED GIRL
Unlike everyone else on Mira, Yara has no birthline markings. She was found as a baby by a Photak and taken to the Photak village, despite how strange she looked. With an unknown origin, unmarked skin, and unusual features, the Elders were extremely wary that the baby could be a secret weapon of the Skotads. Mysteriously, however, Yara could withstand the rays of Sunstar, which no Skotad ever could. She was allowed to stay. Sixteen years later, still without any clues to her origins, Yara is training to be a warrior for the Photak Tribe. Now, an eerie, soft voice begins to haunt her dreams. It asks only one question every time:
“YaraStar… do you know who you are?”
THE ELD QUEEN
Yara isn’t sure that what she’s stumbled into is her life’s purpose. Does it represent who she is meant to become? Unfortunately, she has no time for second-guessing: she has to carry out a grave, urgent duty to her planet, one that some believe should not be her job. And that’s only the start. Yara found clues to her origins, but nobody will tell her where she came from, or who her parents were. With secrets that run so deeply, trust is an exquisite luxury—one Yara may not be able to afford.
Does she have what it takes to face the darkest truth of her existence?
THE MELDED TRUTH
Yara may have resisted her calling, but now that she knows the truth about the great evils her mother faced, she is ready to learn how to surrender. But what is the price of knowledge? And what is the responsibility of truth? Yara can’t get over all that she knows, but she also can’t do anything about it—not without evidence of foul play. Have her enemies covered all their tracks? Can she uncover enough to stop their plans? And can she do it before an even deadlier danger emerges?Is she ready to trust in the unknown without restraint?
