Photo via: The Nerd Element
At just 24 years old, author Tomi Adeyemi is already making waves for securing the one of the largest book deals in history for a young adult author and scoring a seven-figure movie deal for her debut novel, "The Children of Blood and Bone."
In a recent "Good Morning America" interview with Robin Roberts, Adeyemi says that her Nigerian heritage played a huge role in shaping the book as Nigerian myths and legends are a crucial part of the story’s plot. Many places in the book are also named after Nigerian cities, while characters are laced in traditional Nigerian clothing. There is also a spiritual connection to the country in the book and Adeyemi says that for all of the reasons people love "Black Panther" they will also love her novel.
“That’s why the success of [the recent Marvel movie] ‘Black Panther’ has been so significant – Black and marginalized audiences have the chance to see themselves as heroes depicted in a beautiful and empowering way, and white audiences get to see new stories told, and it becomes easier for them to picture a Black superhero," she told The Guardian. "Imagination is a funny thing – we sometimes need to see something before we can truly picture it."
watching this is making it harder to believe that it actually happened lol
— Tomi Adeyemi (@tomi_adeyemi) March 7, 2018
thank you to everyone who's been sharing this interview and supporting #CHILDRENOFBLOODANDBONE! pic.twitter.com/X2P99wzC0G
The book, which is out now, is being likened to other fantasy genre series like "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings." But Adeyemi, who says she was also inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, makes it clear that her work also pulls from real life experiences like police brutality.
Congratulations, Tomi on the debut of your first book! You're an inspiration to young authors everywhere.