Chibundu Onuzo
About Author
Chibundu Onuzo, author of Welcome to Lagos, introduces her first children's book, Mayowa and the Sea of Words.
Chibundu was born in Lagos, Nigeria but moved to England as a teenager and now lives in London. She signed the deal for her first book, The Spider King's Daughter, at 19, and it won the Betty Trask Award. Welcome to Lagos was published in 2016 and in 2018 she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Mayowa and the Sea of Words is her debut children's novel.
Interview
Mayowa and the Sea of Words (Bloomsbury Children's Books)
June 2024
In Mayowa and the Sea of Words, Mayowa discovers that she has inherited an unusual ability from her grandfather; she can release the emotions carried in books. Words carry power, and Mayowa must find a way to use them with care.
Read a Chapter from Mayowa and the Sea of Words
Author Chibundu Onuzo talks to ReadingZone about creating young black heroes, self belief - and book jumping - and what inspired this story about the power of words.
Q&A with Chibundu Onuzo, introducing the themes in Mayowa and the Sea of Words
"Imagine if you could unleash courage on an army before a battle, or fear on a leader before they made
an important speech. You just might be able to alter the course of history."
1. Hello Chibundu, thank you for joining us on ReadingZone. We'd love to know a bit more about you - your loves, your loathings, and what brought you into writing for children?
I'm Chibundu Onuzo. I'm a Christian, a writer and a singer. That's what I have in my Instagram bio and it's pretty accurate. Children's books are amazing. I still read them as an adult so I wanted to add my own efforts to the cannon.
2. What is your new book, Mayowa and the Sea of Words, about, and, as an adult writer, why did you want to write for younger readers?
Mayowa Althea Howard, the main character in Mayowa and the Sea of Words, has a very special gift. She is a 'logosalter', which means she can channel the emotions stored in books. Every time a person reads a book and they feel angry, or happy, or sad, these emotions get trapped in the book.
Special people like Mayowa, can unleash these emotions by jumping on a book with their bare feet. Imagine if you could unleash courage on an army before a battle, or fear on a leader before they made an important speech. You just might be able to alter the course of history.
I wrote this book in particular for my nieces and nephews. My first three books are for adults, so it was about time I wrote something they could read.
3. Can you tell us what inspired this story about family, activism - and 'book jumping'? Indeed, have you ever tried to book jump? And if you could, which book would you want to use?
The story started with an image of an old man jumping on a book and a young girl watching him. As I thought about the image, the old man became Grandpa Edward and the young girl became his grand-daughter Mayowa. He was teaching her how to unleash the emotions stored in books by jumping on them with his bare feet.
I haven't tried to book jump because I would probably get told off by my mum. But if I did book jump, I would choose Everything Good Will Come by Sefi Atta because that books evokes feelings of home for me.
"As a child, I loved Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Secret Garden.
I wanted to put a black child of Nigerian heritage at the centre of that kind of story."
4. Mayowa's family doesn't come from an 'ordinary' background; one grandad has inherited wealth, the other a wealthy lifestyle. Why did you want to take Mayowa out of the world most children will be familiar with?
I've just always loved children's books set in large, rambling country houses. As a child, I loved Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Secret Garden. I wanted to put a black child of Nigerian heritage at the centre of that kind of story.
5. So how important is representation and having black characters and families in your stories to you? How much of a difference would it have made to have read stories about young black heroes as a child?
It would have made a huge difference. I started writing when I was ten, and all the characters in my first novel were white because all the characters in the books I'd been reading were white. This was despite growing up in Nigeria, where literally everyone around me was African.
"I grew up believing in the value of my perspective and it's something
I want young people to believe."
6. How did Mayowa's character develop? She sees herself as a 'barrier breaker' - is that how you saw yourself as a child? And is that how you'd like your readers to see themselves?
I didn't see myself as a barrier breaker as a child but I was very opinionated. I had lots of opinions and my parents never stopped me from sharing them. I grew up believing in the value of my perspective and it's something I want young people to believe.
7. The story touches on how the decisions politicians make can be life-changing - indeed life-threatening - for some people, and particularly refugees. Why did you want to explore this in this story?
That's just the way the book developed. I didn't set out to write a book with these themes but these themes are important to me.
I did a lot of listening when I was writing this book. I have family members who have survived a war and one thing I noted was that they don't like talking about the traumatic things that have happened to them, and they definitely don't like being defined by traumatic events. Hamza, Mayowa's friend in the book, I hope is testament to that. Terrible events have caused him to flee his home country, but he's also a young boy trying to have fun in life and perfect his moonwalk.
8. Despite some difficult themes explored through the story, the authorial footnotes help keep the book fun. Why did you decide to include them?
It just flowed naturally into the story. Life is mingled with grief and joy.
9. Other than a great adventure, what would you like your readers to take from Mayowa's journey in this story?
No one is too young to have a calling and pinching people is never a good idea.
10. Do you have further stories planned for Mayowa, or other children's books? Where do you write - and where do you enjoy escaping to in your downtime?
Yes. The Mayowa series is going to be a trilogy and I'm working on that now. I write at home and I try to write at a desk, even though a lot of the time, I just end up on the sofa. I write in the day time and aim to write five hundred words every day.
To escape, I love a good, white, sandy beach. Which usually means I have to get on a plane to find it.
Mayowa and the Sea of Words
