Author Kwame Alexander to launch new trilogy this fall

NEW YORK (AP) — A trilogy by award-winning children’s author Kwame Alexander that tells the saga of an African family begins this fall with “The Door of No Return.”

The book will be published Sept. 22, Little Brown & Company announced Tuesday. According to the publisher, the three books follow the lives of 11-year-old Kofi and his family from pre-colonial Ghana to the “woes and wonders” they face in Europe and America.

“Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end,” Alexander said in a statement. “I wrote this one because people need to know that the middle (passage) was not our beginning. I wanted to speak the truth about the history of African Americans, because while most of us are aware of the American part it’s time for us to know more about the African part, right?”

Alexander’s novel from 2015, “The Crossover,” won the Newbery Medal for the year’s best children’s book. His other works include the novels “Booked” and “He Said, She Said,” the picture story “The Undefeated” and the poetry collections “Kupenda” and “Crush.”

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