Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky

A high-octane ride through African and African American folklore

7th grader Tristan Strong is still grieving the death of his best friend when he loses his first boxing match - despite being from a family of renowned pugilists.  So, he wants nothing more than to keep his head down and muddle through the upcoming summer on his grandparents’ farm.   But destiny has something else in mind and Tristan is soon wrenched into a parallel world filled with talking animals, malevolent bone ships, airborne skateboarders, and a host of other weird and wonderful things.   

This fast-moving story is situated in a rich atmosphere of Black and African mythology.   Tristan meets John Henry, the legendary steel driving man, who is fighting to save his people.  The young man is also aided (or hindered) by such characters as Br’er Fox, Anansi the Spider, Nyame the Sky God, and High John, the fast-talking hero of enslaved African Americans.  

This book, the first in a series, is part of the “Rick Riordan Presents” collection, so readers who are fans of Percy Jackson will be glad to find out more about Tristan Strong.