Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander
I am Thijs. I enjoy reading (maybe a little too much) and being outdoors. I have a younger brother and my favorite dessert is root beer floats.
The Book “Door of No Return” is a wonderful book that really dives deep into African culture and lifestyle before the Europeans. This book informs you about African culture we did not know about influence. It is a book that is more about who the people were before their world was invaded. At the same time as it informs you about the Africans who lived in Upper Kawate. I was so bewildered that these people had to go through all these things that the Europeans brought.
The book followed the life of a young African boy who lived in Upper Kawate. The rivalry that the Europeans had formed between the two Kawates was getting bad. The Lower was trading goods and slaves from the Upper for Europe’s advanced technology. As the Kawates weakened themselves. The Europeans just sat and watched for a time to conquer all of Kawate. Meanwhile, the main character must struggle with being bullied by his cousin who has been better than him at everything. Amidst all this struggle how could this lonesome boy come through? This eventful action-packed book is short and sweet and gives you an insider’s view of how Europe changed Africa forever in the span of just a few years.
This book holds some very heavy and important lessons of life. I would not recommend it for a kid who has not fully developed yet. Preferably 11+ due to violence and slavery. You should most likely anticipate yourself for some things that are deep and have a lot of meaning in them. This is a historical fiction novel with made-up characters but the ways of the people are all true as well as the violence that was happening at the time.
