Where the Black Flowers Bloom

Written by Ronald L. Smith

Narrated by Nneka Okoye

A gripping, richly imagined fantasy set in an alternate ancient African world in which a Black girl finds her power and saves her people from evil, by the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning author of Black Panther: The Young Prince. 

In the land of Alkebulan, twelve-year-old Asha is an orphan, raised by Madame S, the proprietor of a traveling carnival. When Madame S is attacked by ghoulish creatures, she manages to tell Asha before she dies, “Seek the Underground Kingdom, where the black flowers bloom.”

Asha doesn’t understand the mysterious words, but they launch her onto a page-turning quest to protect her people and stop an ancient evil. Along the way, she uncovers shocking secrets about the family she never knew and begins to find her place in the world as she discovers her own untapped powers. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jan 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9780358639527

Ronald L. Smith

Ronald L. Smith is the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award–winning author of several acclaimed novels for young readers, including Hoodoo, The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away, Gloom Town, Where the Black Flowers Bloom, and the Black Panther: The Young Prince series. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland. To learn more, visit strangeblackflowers.com.