A young student, Jarrell, doesn't fit in at school as he is constantly finding himself drawing and daydreaming of an extremely vivid place that doesn't exist- or so he thinks. After a series of unfortunate events, he ends up at his cousin's barbershop to get a sneak peek and notices a mirror or is it more? Upon being transported to another dimension, Jarrell realizes that he wasn't daydreaming and finds out more about his family heritage. This is a great quick read that kept my students engaged during the reading. There were times that we were confused as there is a lot of action in it, but we were able to follow along and fill in the pieces as we went.

This has a lot going for it -- Afrofuturism, accessible text, barber shop portal fantasy, main character who loves to draw, chosen one/hero's journey -- check, check, check. Another reviewer (Sharmin Begum) described it as "a cross between Black Panther and Narnia" and that is it in a nutshell -- and all of that sounds great, but I just can't say I enjoyed it -- it felt really flat to me. It's entirely possible that the intended audience (upper elementary) will love it, but as I started looking around I discovered that this is a collaborative piece authored by a group of writers. Cool idea, just didn't work for me. ( )

First sentence: Jarell brushed his hand over the back of his head. It's got to be long enough now, right? he thought. At least his hair was finally more than stubble. On his last adventure to the kingdom of Ulfrika, the magical symbol had been burned away completely. He couldn't return until his hair was long enough to have a new symbol cut into it, but time was running out. He had to return to the ancient-future world of Ulfrika, find the remaining three iron animals, and stop the evil sorcerer Ikala before it was too late.

Premise/plot: Mission to Shadow Sea is the second book in the Future Hero fantasy series for young readers. Jarell--the future hero--travels via haircut and magic mirror to another world, Ulfrica. He has adventures (and sometimes misadventures) there. When he's not off risking it all and fighting against the odds, he lives in London, I believe.

My thoughts: I am not the target audience for this one. That doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend it. I would recommend, however, waiting until ALL the books in the series have been released. I imagine that this series would be at its absolute best if a reader--presumably young--sat down with a stack of books and fell absolutely in love with the series, the story, the characters, the adventure of it all.

The more detailed a fantasy world is, the more a reread is required in between books. Plus some fantasy books just require more investment. Fantasy can be hit or miss for me. And there usually isn't a reason why some fantasy novels I just am able to immerse myself into the world and escape...and others that just leave me puzzled and out of sorts. But I do think it's more of a me problem.

I remembered the real world, London, bits. I had a hazy memory of the fantasy world. (Probably it would be better if it was reversed.) Still, I don't have to personally love a series in order to recommend it to kids. ( )