Shuri: a Black Panther novel by Nic Stone - OPTIONAL

Shuri: a Black Panther novel by Nic Stone, 272 pages. Scholastic, 2020. $18 

Content: G 

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - OPTIONAL 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

13yo Shuri has been asked by her brother, the Black Panther, the King of Wakanda, to make him a new Black Panther suit. Shuri knows that the high-tech Vibranium fabric needs the help of the Heart-Shaped herb, the herb that every king ingests to give him is super powers. There are only 5 days to Challenge Day – when anyone can try to take Wakanda’s throne. Unfortunately, the Heart-shaped herb is dying. If Shuri doesn’t move fast, there may be no herb forever. In order to find answers, Shuri and her Dora Milaj in training, K’Marah, will need to go outside Wakanda’s borders – where new friends and new dangers lurk. 

If the various Marvel books circulate well in your library, add this offering. I will probably cross my fingers for a paperback later, because they just haven’t found their audience here. The only grating note to Stone’s novel is Shuri’s mother – I don’t understand how she can see how important Shuri’s work is, and yet thwart her at every turn with her superficial orders. I would be happy with a Wakanda without the Queen Mother. 

 Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS