Review of Black Panther by Ronald L Smith
My heart still breaks when I think of the death of Chadwick Boseman who played the Black Panther character so well. His role will give hope to Black people for generations to come. Black Panther: Young Prince, written by Ronald L. Smith, is geared to middle school children ages 8-12, however as an adult I also enjoyed reading this story. It is an adventure of our young prince, T’Challa who is forced to hide in America with his friend M’Baku. For the first time in his life T’Challa is without the constant supervision of his father, T’Chaka. With strong warnings not to reveal his identity, T’Challa must adapt to this strange new world.
Unfortunately, trouble finds him and he must trust his royal instincts to save himself and M’Baku who has gone wild in America. This story kept my attention and I wanted to read a new adventure when I finished. Fortunately Black Panther Spellbound, book 2 in the series, came out earlier this month I could see this version of the story being made into a movie with a young actor portraying T’Challa. I found this book while searching through the library discard shelves. Published in 2018 It is a popular book on Amazon with more than 300 reviews.
In addition to his Black Panther series, Ronald L. Smith has written other children and young adult books including Hoodoo his first novel that was published in 2016 and was recognized with the Coretta Scott Award.
Candace Waller is the author of, What Goes Around Comes Around the sequel Good Things Comes, and the upcoming book Lessons I Learned From Loving You, A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Healing.