Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

It seems that there is an inherent quality of works that fall into “spiritual education” that they take on aspects of the “fairy tale”. Specifically, with its educational qualities, these educational aspects of the stories told through metaphorical and fantastical means are targeted young people to illustrate challenges and problem-solving situations that they will encounter in their real lives. Using magic and fantastical settings to deal with struggles that youth currently have or will have, later on, it allows for this ability to deal with possibly complex or dark topics in a more digestible way. Ideas like manipulation and parental authority come in to question in this store, there is a healthy question of authority brought up in this work. Also, romance and how other people come into play when it comes to love between two people. Ideas and situations that most people have to tackles as the age, so seeing this as somewhat of a young adult novel seems very appropriate and fitting.

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Hobbit is one of these fundamental pieces of literature becomes even more important in our contemporary time through its transition into a film, and the marks to beginning of modern films tradition of adapting literature for the big screen. Many will only know The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings for what they’ve seen in the movie theater but never the less it illustrates a fundamental structure that exists in almost every piece of literature, story, film, or otherwise in the west, the idea of the hero’s journey. Now specifying the west is important I believe because you can argue and push on to eastern/other works the idea of a hero’s journey and it either clicks or doesn’t. There are fundamental things that exist in most works when dealing with a hero but some are looser than others. Obviously, The Hobbit is one of the best reflections of the hero’s journey, without looking back to the Greek classics and others, of course, J. R. R. Tolkien gives an amazing depiction of such a structure.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Before I say anything else I’d like to say that I enjoy Akata Witch more than the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series and I believe its kind of a lame to compare Akata to them (which I've seen a lot of people do). A possible reason for my enjoyment in this is how refreshing the work is in its world-building, cultural aspects, and use of magic & other fantasy elements. But I digress.

Akata Witch as a store has some extremely compelling characters and situations that the work explores. The power (literally and metaphorically) that comes from the matriarchal figures in the story is awesome to see and the young girls also radiate an aura of confidence and strength, while still being real flawed and growing characters. The story tackles somewhat normal themes while in this world of Nigeria and magic that keeps even somewhat cookie-cutter situations seem fresh and interesting to read. Whether it’s coming of age, moving to a new place, wanting to make friends, wanting to play sports, etc. it’s interesting to see Nigerian culture and this idea of voodoo/juju and magic mixed into it. Speaking of Juju, the manifestation of magic in this story is one of my favorite and more refreshing aspects to the story, no wands (unless you count the knives), broomsticks, and black cats. Something that I thought was super interesting to explore was the idea of Albinism in African societies and the baggage that carries. Coming from America to live a new place plus having a cultural and physically significate abnormality adds more depth to the whole story. I will be exploring more of her books in the future.