Author says black girls need a fantasy book every month

omotolani

March 12, 2018 12:39 PM

Adeyemi's "Children of Blood and Bone", draws comparisons with everything from Game of Thrones to Black Panther, and has netted a movie deal reported to be worth seven figures.

24-year-old Nigerian-American author of "Children of Blood and Bone", Tomi Adeyemi, says that black teenage girls need to

“In my perfect world, we’d have one black girl fantasy book every month,” says Adeyemi. “We need them, and we need fantasy stories about black boys as well.”

“For the past 10 months I’ve spent a lot of time thinking, is this for real?” she says. “I had a lot of different reasons for writing the book but at its core was the desire to write for black teenage girls growing up reading books they were absent from. That was my experience as a child. Children of Blood and Bone is a chance to address that. To say you are seen.”

Adeyemi on Black Experience

Adeyemi debuted the biggest fantasy novel of 2018 "Children of Blood and Bone", drawing comparisons with everything from "Game of Thrones" to "Black Panther", and has netted a movie deal reported to be worth seven figures.

She describes the story as “an allegory for the modern black experience”. It draws inspiration from both West African mythology and the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Every moment of violence in the book is based on real footage,” she says. “It’s not my intention to be gratuitous but I want people to be aware that these things are happening and that the actual videos are much worse.”

About "Children of Blood and Bone"

"Children of Blood and Bone" follows fisherman’s daughter Zélie and an unlikely band of allies and enemies on a quest to reawaken magic in the country of Orïsha.

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