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    Ship of Souls
    Ship of Souls
    Ship of Souls
    Audiobook3 hours

    Ship of Souls

    Written by Zetta Elliott

    Narrated by Benjamin L. Darcie

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When Dmitri, an eleven-year-old bird-watcher and math whiz, loses his mother to breast cancer, he is taken in by Mrs. Martin, an elderly white woman. Unaccustomed to the company of kids his own age, D struggles at school and feels like an outcast until a series of unexpected events changes the course of his life.

    First, D is asked to tutor the school’s basketball star, Hakeem, who will get benched unless his grades improve. Against the odds, the two boys soon realize they have something in common: they are both taunted by kids at school, and they both have a crush on Nyla, a beautiful but fierce eighth-grade girl. Then Nyla adopts D and invites him to join her entourage of “freaks.” Finally, D discovers an injured bird and brings it home from the park.

    D is stunned when the strange bird speaks to him and reveals that she is really a guiding spirit that has been held hostage by ghost soldiers who died in Brooklyn at the start of the American Revolution. As Nuru’s chosen host, D must carry her from Brooklyn to the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan, but the ghost soldiers won’t surrender their prize without a fight.

    With the help of Hakeem and Nyla, D battles the Nether Beings who lurk underground, feeding off centuries of rage and pain. But it takes an unexpected ally to help the trio reach the ship that will deliver the innocent souls of the dead back to Nuru’s realm. An urban fantasy infused with contemporary issues and historical facts, Ship of Souls by Zetta Elliott will keep teen readers gripped until the very end.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMay 8, 2012
    ISBN9781455886722
    Ship of Souls
    Author

    Zetta Elliott

    Born in Canada, Zetta Elliott moved to Brooklyn in 1994 to pursue her PhD in American studies at New York University. Her poetry and essays have been published in several anthologies, and her plays have been staged in New York, Chicago, and Cleveland. She wrote the award-winning picture book Bird and the young adult novel A Wish After Midnight. She currently lives in Brooklyn.

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    Reviews for Ship of Souls

    3.5/5

    17 ratings1 review

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    • 4/5
      I'm primed to like any book that begins with an author essay about the magic she sees in the world around her and the little synchronicities that inspire connections that might not otherwise be made. I'm a person who gets up every day looking for the magic, no matter how small it might be. Magic's always there and it's a universally great reason to get out of bed when compared with all the other more mundane reasons. It also helps me keep my mind open and stay in the moment rather than spending my days shut off from the best parts of the world.Ship of Souls is a middle-grade book (ages 11 and up) about the difficulty of being an outsider kid (or group of kids). D is in the foster care system having lost his single mother and only family. He is fortunate to have two friends, Hakeem and Nyla. Hakeem is a star basketball player who is always under suspicion because of his Muslim religion. Nyla is the self-appointed head of the "freaks" who band together to stave off the rest of the kids and their contempt. When these three children find each other, magic begins to occur.Slipping back and forth between modern day Brooklyn and the past of Harlem's African Burial Ground, between reality and fantasy, Ship of Souls seamlessly interconnects magic, fantasy, history, and the realities of modern day life for many children. Written with delicacy and an eye towards creating glorious pictures in your brain, this one is a must read. Highly recommended (whether or not you're 11 years old - remember the "and up" part).