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Magic, Power, and Purpose: Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone

     I initially chose to read this text because it was a well-received fantasy novel. After researching YAL more, I realized that this fantasy novel is written by a smart and creative BIPOC author who is also an Ivy League graduate and daughter of Nigerian parents who emigrated from Nigeria. She is also a writing coach and knows how to craft a beautiful and epic story. The creativity in this story is amazing as Adeyemi crafts an epic tale in the fictional land of Orisha. 

    The land's King Saran has ruled very carefully and brutally over his kingdom for the last eleven years since magic died. He found a way to end the feud between noble elites and the Maji, who possessed the magic. The king will go to any extremes to maintain his power as he is often quoted throughout the story: "Duty over self."

    Zélie, along with her brother, Tzain, and the king's rogue princess daughter, Amari, work together to try to restore the magic of the Maji. Amari has joined Zélie and Tzain after escaping the kingdom with a an important scroll that holds power for the almost exterminated Maji.     

Awards and Recognitions

Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, 2019

Goodreads Choice Awards Best Debut Goodreads Author, 2018

A Few Favorite Quotes

"As long as we don't have magic, they will never treat us with respect. They need to know we can hit them back. If they burn our homes, we burn theirs, too."...Tzain's mouth falls open and he locks eyes with me. We haven't seen this man for eleven years. We didn't know he was still alive.

~  Zélie (pg. 99) when her father urges her and her brother to go fight-back towards the king

"Do not worry, " I whisper as he takes his last breath. "I will make a far better queen."

~ Amari, (pg. 514) after she kills--Sorry, a possible spoiler alert so let's just leave it at that. 😁

    Both quotes make me think of family dynamics--as I noticed being a theme of the novel. Both main female protagonists face blatant differences in their family structure; however, both spend a lot of time thinking about their parents and how their parents might feel about their actions. I think this may be an interesting theme to explore with students but think that a theme about family should always be approached with sensitivity since everyone's is different. 


Other Teaching and Content Considerations

  •     I've always loved facilitating Socratic Seminars with my students and I think holding one while using Children of Blood and Bone as the anchor text would be a great idea! An open-ended question to guide discussion could be, "How does power function in the world of Orïsha, and how does it compare to our world?" Students could prepare evidence-based arguments and participate in a structured debate, using the Socratic Seminar method. The research could center around real-world issues in parts of Africa and/or real-world issues in the U.S.--past and present. 
  •     In addition, I really enjoyed reading the story through three different perspectives and voices: Zélie--the main protagonist, Amari, and Inan. Using the text to compare and contrast the differing voices and perspectives during key scenes and events could be very engaging for students. 
  • The book is long and a specific type of fictional drama--fantasy fiction to be specific--so it might be best to use this in a small-group setting where students have the choice of reading this book or others of different genres. Book clubs would be fun!

    I chose to read Children of Blood and Bone because of the diversity in main characters and because the novel is hailed as a YAL epic. I enjoyed the first third of the text but, honestly, became a little frustrated with the amount of graphic violence and death as the story wore on. Plus, the rising action of the plot was getting hard to follow with so many fine details--and I'm not a big fan of fantasy anyways. I appreciate the genre but don't personally gravitate towards it and it was starting to become apparent halfway through the book as I just couldn't keep up with all of the make-believe; I was starting to struggle with the comprehension. The ending was a bit disappointing as well since it's a 500-page novel (544 pages to be exact) that ends with little resolved--hence the sequel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance. 

    I realize that power, oppression, and cycles of violence are themes in Children of Blood and Bone; however, I chose not to focus on it in this blog--rather to look at character perspectives and family dynamics among the main characters. That being said, the book always had me thinking of past and current realities/events in our real-world. I would be interested in exploring African history and colonization of native Africans throughout the years after reading Children of Blood and Bone. Although the story is a creative work of fiction, there are big parallels to real life that could also be explored in history and social studies courses. 


Adeyemi, T. (2018). Children of Blood and Bone . Henry Holt and Co. (BYR).


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