Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Image: Penguin Random House Audio

Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours, 18 minutes. Read by Kinsale Hueston. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio, January, 2020. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I had a total of zero trick-or-treaters on Sunday. I'm also ready for our short week! NJ public schools are closed Thursday and Friday for Teachers' Convention Weekend. November celebrates Native American Indian/ Alaska Native Heritage month, so many of the books recommended this month will feature books by or about Indigenous North Americans (even though I try to keep the Daily Book Talks diverse all through the year).

Middle Grade Monday features Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. This entry in the Rick Riordan Presents Imprint doesn't disappoint. Twelve-year-old Nizhoni Begay has dreams of doing something heroic - on the basketball court, at school or onine. She's just a bit distractable and seems to always mess things up because she can see monsters hidden in human disguises and one happens to be at her basketball game where she has the opportunity to win the game for her team. She ends up on the gym floor with a bloody nose instead, and she returns home to fine the man/ monster in her driveway! He's her dad's new boss and the reason the family will be moving from New Mexico to Oklahoma.

Turns out, NIzhoni is a monster-slayer and her brother, Mac, has powers as well. They are both descendants of the Hero Twins of Navajo myth and legend and now they have to rescue their father and save the world.

The story is fast-paced and peppered with moments of humor and Navajo words, for which there is a glossary. I am glad to have read this one with my ears to hear the words and names correctly pronounced. Memorable characters include a talking horned toad, a guardian of a mountain made of crystal and Spider Woman.

Readers who love fantasy adventure like the Percy Jackson books will love this one. Happy reading!