Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting (Serwa Boateng #1)

by Roseanne Brown (Author)

Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade
Series: Serwa Boateng

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents best-selling author Roseanne A. Brown's middle grade debut about a pre-teen vampire slayer with a strong helping of Ghanaian folklore.

For most kids, catching fireflies is a fun summer activity. For twelve-year-old Serwa Boateng, it's a matter of life and death. That's because Serwa knows that some fireflies are really adze, shapeshifting vampires from the forests of Southeastern Ghana. Adze prey on the blood of innocents, possessing their minds and turning them into hulking monsters, and for generations, slayers like Serwa and her parents have protected an unknowing public from their threats. Serwa is the best adze slayer her age, and she knew how to use a crossbow before she could even ride a bike. But when an obayifo (witch) destroys her childhood home while searching for a drum, do Serwa's parents take her with them on their quest to defeat her? No. Instead, they dump Serwa with her hippie aunt and cryptic-obsessed cousin in the middle of Nowheresville, Maryland for her own safety.

Now, instead of crossbows and battle armor, she's dealing with mean girls and algebra, and for the first time in her life she doesn't have to carry a staff everywhere she goes, which is . . . kind of nice, actually. Just as Serwa starts to get the hang of this whole normal girl who doesn't punch vampires every day thing, an adze infiltrates her school. It's up to her to whip some of her classmates into monster-fighting shape before all of them become firefly food. And when she uncovers a secret that upends everything she thought she knew about her family's role in the slayer vs. adze war, Serwa will have to decide which side of herself--normal girl or slayer--is the right one. After all, seventh grade is hard enough without adding vampires to the mix. 

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Kirkus

Starred Review
This textured, richly mythological story will keep the pages turning as readers are drawn into Serwa’s world. A superb, action-packed series starter.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Courageous 12-year-old Serwa Boateng has trained her entire life to become a fully fledged Slayer of the Abomofuo order, Ghanian warriors blessed by the gods and charged with defeating dark creatures, including the adze--shape-shifting vampires that can inhabit a human host. When a surprise attack compromises the family's northern U.S. safe house, precipitating their flight, Serwa's parents are tasked with slaying Boahinmaa, a witch who leads the forces of black magic and killed Serwa's paternal grandmother. Instead of fighting alongside her parents, though, Serwa is forced to stay with distant family she barely knows, attending middle school in a town utterly devoid of magic. But all is not what it seems in Rocky Gorge, Md., and before long, Serwa is caught up in a startling vampire hunt of her own. Planning an underworld heist, meeting with deities, and dodging school bullies are just the beginning of Serwa's journey, undertaken alongside "smelly forest spirit" Boulder, a gnomelike mmoatia; supportive cousin Roxy; and new friends Eunju, Gavin, and Mateo. Via Serwa's savvy narration, Brown (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin) melds Ghanian folklore, smart action, thoughtful commentary about liminal spaces, and a healthy dose of tween hijinks, making for an exhilarating introduction to Serwa Boateng's magic-filled world. Ages 10-14. Agent: Quressa Robinson, Nelson Literary. (Sept.)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting is a thrilling middle grade adventure with a fresh take on vampires and characters that you will not only root for but love with all your heart. This novel had a hold on me from page one. Roseanne really knocked it out of the park!" —Claribel A. Ortega, New York Times best-selling author of Witchlings
Roseanne Brown
Roseanne "Rosie" A. Brown was born in Kumasi, Ghana and immigrated to the wild jungles of central Maryland as a child. Writing was her first love, and she knew from a young age that she wanted to use the power of writing to connect the different cultures she called home. She worked as an assistant teacher, journalist, and editorial intern before writing her first two young adult novels, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, an instant New York Times best-seller, and A Psalm of Storms and Silence. This is her middle grade debut, and it will be followed by Serwa Boateng's Guide to Witchcraft and Mayhem. Rosie currently lives outside Washington, D.C., where she can usually be found explaining memes to her elderly relatives or thinking about Star Wars. She can neither confirm nor deny if she has ever been possessed by a vampire. Follow her on Twitter @rosiesrambles.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781368066365
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
N/A
Publication date
September 06, 2022
Series
Serwa Boateng
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV011010 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JUV058000 - Juvenile Fiction | Paranormal, Occult & Supernatural
JUV052000 - Juvenile Fiction | Monsters
JUV012050 - Juvenile Fiction | Legends, Myths, Fables | African
Library of Congress categories
United States
Magic
Schools
Supernatural
Paranormal fiction
Vampires
Middle schools
Good and evil
Mythology, African
Novels
Ghanaians

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