Mayowa And The Sea Of Words - Chibundu Onuzo

When Mayowa goes to spend the summer with her grandpa, she thinks she might discover why he jumps on books - something she's been banned from doing at home.  When he won't tell her, she jumps on a book herself and discovers that she can channel the feelings within the book and send them to people who are around her.  Reluctantly, her grandpa tells her that those who can do this are called logosalters and that it's a skill that is passed down the family.  However, Mayowa and her grandpa discover that there are other logosalters in the world and their morals and intentions are very different.

Being a logosalter is something that Grandpa Edwards has kept secret from his family and they simply believe that he is just eccentric when he jumps on books.  Mayowa has always been curious about this but her parents have banned her from jumping on books herself, so when she gets the chance to discover what is going on, she jumps at the chance (literally!).  Grandpa Edwards is torn between honouring her parents' wishes and teaching her about the gift she has.  Mayowa has to be very persuasive to get what she wants (without jumping on a book!).  

I loved the range of characters that we meet in the book: Mayowa is desperate to find out what her strength is; her Nigerian mum is blind; her grandpa dies his beard green and helps refugees whilst Hamza and his mum have fled their country in search of a safer life and introduce their culture to Mayowa and Grandpa Edwards.  I loved getting to know them.  The book also has some incredibly vile baddies.  In some books, the baddies have one or two redeeming characters; however, here they felt particularly evil and stopped at nothing to get what they wanted - readers will love to hate them and I bet they were great to create and write.

As well as weaving magic into Mayowa And The Sea Of Words, the book takes a look at family dynamics, racism, politics, free speech and refugees and does so well - it will get readers talking. 

Empathy and understanding different emotions are at the heart of this book.  With humour woven in through the use of footnotes (I loved these!), Mayowa and the sea of Words was a wonderful read and I'm very much looking forward to reading the second book in the trilogy.