Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms, by Jamar J. Perry (February 1 2022 by Bloomsbury Children's Books) is a middle grade fantasy
inspired by West African and Igbo history and mythology that I added enthusiastically to my tbr list when I first heard of it months ago.
It's the story of a boy whose mother read to him the magical Book of Chidani, full of stories about a kingdom whose queen called on the gods of the Igbo people of west Africa to seal themselves off from the world in order to save her people from the slave trade. But Cameron's mother and father disappeared two years before the book begins, and his grandmother has hidden the book.
But Cameron finds it, up in the attic, and when he and his best friends Zion and Aliyah open it again, the magic of the book draws them into Chidani. All the magical stories are true, except that Chidini is in danger. The three talismans that kept the queen and her people from aging, part of her bargain with the gods, have been stolen by her sister, and without them, Chidani will collapse, and be open to the world again. Not only that, but the dark powers that the queen's sister has bargained with will flood into our own world.
And in true middle grade fantasy style, Cameron, heir to the magic of the book, must train to be a warrior and find the three missing relics. He did not want to be a hero, but here he is.
So yes, this is familiar ground--the magical fighting, the griffins with whom the three kids form telepathic bonds, the chase after stolen objects of power while fighting terrifying wraiths. But it's engrossing, and even if this was all there was to the story, it would be a fun (though not deeply memorable) read. Several things, however, give depth and heart to the story, making it more than generic mg fantasy.
First there's the premise, that the magical kingdom was created in response to the horror of the slave trade, that took Cameron's ancestors from their homes. This weighted past, tied to the real world, makes it a place the the reader must come to with a certain gravitas, a taking-seriously-ness that most portal fantasies don't have.
Second, the queen's sister has at least one good reason to want to break down the bubble protecting Chidani--time stopped for everyone living there when it was formed, and no one has aged. Four hundred years of stasis is not a pleasing thought; it is basically a prison. I was hoping that the sister, once she made this point, would go on to have more nuance to her villainy than she did, but there was enough doubt in my mind to start questioning everything that was supposedly so wonderful, which added lots of interest! There's a goddess, for instance, who is basically the patron of the Chidanians, that I have my suspicious eye on.....
Thirdly, Cameron's parents died fighting in Chidani, failing to do what Cameron must now attempt. Echoes of their struggle keep bringing his grief, anger, and frustration welling up, and make his assigned task as Savior and Hero a burden he's even more unwilling to bear. There's a horrifying twist toward the end, too, which ups the dead parent stakes even more!
And Fourthly, there's his friendship with Zion. Are the two boys just really close and affectionate friends, like two brothers who love each other, sometimes even holding hands for mutual reassurance (which would be great, because this sort of boy friendship is rare in fiction) or do all the possible hints mean its going to turn into more than friendship (which would also be great, because MG fantasy with gay boys is really rare!)?
So yes, much of the story runs along familiar rails (which won't, of course, be as familiar to the target audience as they are to veteran MG fantasy reader, me, and so this is not a criticism but a personal statement), and I would have been happy with some of the fantasy filler descriptions and such pared down a bit (again, I'm not the target audience), but seeing where plot bits 2, 3, and 4 go next will have me come back eagerly for the next book!
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
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