The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander (audiobook)

 genre: middle grade historical fiction

Kofi's life is full of the stuff most lives are made of: parents, siblings, friends and bullies, teachers and elders.  He plays the games of his people and struggles with his responsibilities at home the way any eleven year old might.  He has big dreams and he feels big love in the Ghanian village he calls home.  There are warnings, though, from those older than him - that down near the river there are things to fear, but it feels too abstract for Kofi to worry about - not when he has his cousin boasting to the other kids at school and big happenings in the village to gossip about.  Those warnings, though, serve to let us know as readers that there absolutely is something going on near the water - and that in 1860s Africa, that thing, is the kind of horror that will change everything.

I listened to this gorgeous and poetic novel and I am so glad I chose the audio - the read is amazing, his accent and pronunciation set me right into a long ago Africa.  Alexander makes Kofi's life so relatable, so beautiful in it's small details - he truly felt to me like a child that might have lived this life, felt these feelings.  The pain here, though, it's pretty devastating - yet somehow the poetic rhythm takes a tiny bit of the sting out, just enough so that we can endure it.  I wanted so much to somehow turn Kofi around, to unwind time and stop his world from changing and falling apart - but we know what happens.  We know how this goes and it's heartbreaking.  Alexander makes us FEEL through Kofi, through his innocence, his love for his family and his beautiful hope.  He puts a face to the countless beautiful human beings who were ripped from their lives and taken to lands unknown. The ending was a little abrupt and I was uncertain as to how I felt about it and then I read it will be a trilogy and I felt much better.  This is a book that I would share with my kids once I felt like they were old enough to be able to handle and comprehend the truly horrible way people can treat each other, I would want to be available to them to help them think and process about what's happening. But I'd want them to read it.  Definitely.