JAX FREEMAN AND THE TOURNAMENT OF SPIRITS

Jax Freeman, “summoner extraordinaire,” and his friends are back for seventh grade, and they’re competing, with varying levels of enthusiasm, in the titular competition.

The Tournament of Spirits, to be hosted for the first time in Jax’s new hometown of Chicago, is a yearlong competition that pits teams of young magic workers—summoners—from around the world against one another. Jax’s team’s coach doesn’t think they’re ready, and neither do Jax’s teammates, but the contest’s head judge sees something in Jax that makes her encourage him to enter his ethnically diverse team of five as representatives of Chicago. As the tournament progresses, the challenges the kids face are complicated by the illicit introduction of endangered cryptids. Poachers are at work, and the head judge and a leader of the local summoning community ask Jax to keep an eye on his fellow competitors, even his teammates, to identify the malefactors. With the tournament, Mbalia expands the universe of summoners to a global one; the Italian, Martinique, and South African teams play significant secondary roles. The cryptids the kids encounter likewise spring from various traditions, but Jax’s African American culture provides the novel’s texture. With the tournament, friendship drama, and cryptid poaching, there’s a lot going on, and the author wrangles some details better than others. Nevertheless, Jax’s endearingly rambling, frequently comedic narration will keep kids engaged.

Propulsive fun.