Fibbed
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
"Elizabeth Agyemang smartly weaves culture, adventure, and a little magic into a dynamic story about stories. Agyemang's colorful illustrations breathe life into Nana's journey as she connects with her roots and learns to believe in her own voice. At its core, FIBBED is a bold reminder that stories—and those who tell them—have power." —Booki Vivat, New York Times bestselling author of the Frazzled series
A magical middle-grade graphic novel about a girl who doesn’t lie but no one believes, and who winds up tangled in the web of a trickster spider of Ghanaian lore, Ananse.
Everyone says that the wild stories Nana tells are big fibs. But she always tells the truth, as ridiculous as it sounds to hear about the troupe of circus squirrels stealing her teacher’s toupee. When another outlandish explanation lands her in hot water again, her parents announce that Nana will be spending the summer with her grandmother in Ghana.
She isn’t happy to be missing the summer camp she’s looked forward to all year, or to be living with family that she barely knows, in a country where she can’t really speak the native language. But all her worries get a whole lot bigger—literally—when she comes face-to-face with Ananse, the trickster spider of legend.
Nana soon discovers that the forest around the village is a place of magic watched over by Ananse. But a group of greedy contractors are draining the magic from the land, intent on selling the wishes for their own gain. Nana must join forces with her cousin Tiwaa, new friend Akwesi, and Ananse himself to save the magic from those who are out to steal it before the magic—and the forest—are gone for good.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Agyemang reimagines Ghanaian folklore in this fantastical graphic novel debut following a creative middle schooler with a talent for telling stories. Nana Busumuru is looking forward to spending the summer at storytelling camp, but after she's sent to the school principal's office for allegedly stealing her teacher's toupee, her parents instead put her on a plane from the U.S. to Ghana to visit extended family she's never met. Though initially overwhelmed by the large family's warm welcome and tendency to switch between English and Twi, she finds kinship with her tale-spinning grandmother; she tells Nana that she was once saved by Ananse, the trickster spider of Ghanaian lore, and reveals that the plantains she grows and sells in the village are a result of his magic. Despite Ananse's mystical influence, however, other villagers' crops have been mysteriously failing, and Nana learns that white foreign contractors have been illegally stripping resources from the forest, including magical wish-granting vegetation. Accompanied by her cousin Tiwaa, new frenemy Akwesi, and cunning Ananse, Nana endeavors to end the exploitation of Ghanaian land. While the art's visual linear progression is occasionally muddled, Agyemang's highly stylized, vibrantly hued illustrations handily convey this lush tale. An author's note and glossary conclude. Ages 8–12.
