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Middle Grade Sidekick Super Review: Kwame Crashes the Underworld (2024) by Craig Kofi Farmer
- Dec 5, 2025
- 6 min read
The Basics
Page Length: 352
Audiobook Length: ~9 hours
Grade Reading Level: 5+
Target Audience Age: 8-12
Goodreads Score: 4.06 out of 5
Buy it HERE
Setting: The Ghanaian Underworld: Asamando
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Topics: Ghanian Mythology, Heritage, Magic, Grief, ASL, Friendship
Plot: Kwame Powell has just lost his grandmother, and now he’s being forced to go to Ghana for her funeral. His mom says it’s important — that going to Ghana would honor his grandmother — but Kwame doesn’t feel Ghanaian. He feels anything but. He can’t even bring himself to wear the dashiki she made for him before she died.
But before he even makes it to Ghana, Kwame finds himself pulled into its underworld, Asamando, along with his best friend Autumn. Asamando is filled with magical places, creatures, and gods and goddesses. Kwame even encounters his grandmother — but she’s different: his age and apparently part goddess. This discovery makes Kwame powerful too.
It turns out he’s a shard of the great Mother Earth goddess, Asase Yaa, and she has charged him with saving both the underworld and all the people of Earth — her most prized creation. Kwame and Autumn must accept their identities, face their struggles, and embrace their heritage and grief in order to fulfill his destiny and follow Asase Yaa’s charge to save the world.
Themes: The grieving process, embracing your cultural identity, courage, the power of ancestral connection, and responsibility for taking care of the Earth
You might like this book if you like:
mythology and folklore
gardening, plant care, nature--connecting to the earth
Shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Maya and the Three, Amphibia, The Owl House, Hilda
Movies like Coco, The Book of Life, Soul, Black Panther, Raya and the Last Dragon, Spirited Away, Kubo and the Two Strings
Books like: Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Ikenga, Children of the Quicksands, The Serpent's Secret, A Monster Calls
Other books written by this author: A Method for Magic and Misfortune
Teaching Kwame Crashes the Underworld in Class
Content
Language: none
Sex/Romance: none
Violence/Scariness: lots of fighting between the kids and magical creatures and vengeful gods. In one scene, the children are kidnapped and "mummified." There are also moments where the characters are discriminated against because of race and ability (one character is deaf and uses sign language to communicate)
Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: none
Class Novel-ability: I’m not sure this would be the most appropriate choice for a whole-class novel. Its use of violence, gods and goddesses, and mythology might not be approved by all parents. That said, kids would absolutely love it. I really enjoyed reading it myself — it’s funny, full of heart, and packed with strong themes and messages. The fast-paced adventure and magical underworld setting would definitely hook reluctant readers. This is a great recommendation for students to catch the reading fever!
The Star Qualities
This book is hilarious! The voice of the main character is so funny. Kwame is relatable and clever, and reading from his perspective is delightful. It’s rare that I read a middle-grade novel that actually makes me giggle, but this is a good one.
The themes about grief and ableism are quite powerful. One of the main characters is Deaf and communicates through sign language. In the underworld of Asamando, she is viewed by the gods as weak and useless, and she even starts to believe it herself. But she learns to use sign language as a superpower and to embrace who she is. The protagonist, Kwame, has just lost his grandmother. His encounter with her in the Underworld forces him to confront his grief instead of pushing it away. In the end, it’s actually what helps him save the world. I love how the story teaches readers about the journey of grief—how everyone experiences it differently and how everyone has to face it in their own time.
This book is nonstop: a super fast-paced adventure. For me, it introduced a whole new world I was unfamiliar with, but it wasn’t hard to follow. I think the target audience will easily grasp the setting and the intricacies of Ghanaian mythology. It will hook them and keep them hooked!
Book Talk Read Aloud Section
If you have the physical book, read pages 1-6 through the phrase, "the indictment starts now."
If you don't, read the same pages in the Kindle reading sample here.
"Reading Like a Writer" Mentor Texts
I love this passage. It’s got great voice and a sharp sense of humor—top-notch for teaching voice and tone. The narrator is relatable and offers vivid descriptions of his home and school life. It’s got hyperbole, lists, italics, alliteration, and short, sarcastic sentences. Kids will love reading it, and I think it will really encourage them to get creative and inspire some hilarious passages of their own.
This passage is great for teaching suspense and action. The onomatopoeia is especially effective, and the repetition helps build tension. The pacing is gradual—first the sound, then the attack, then the weakening barrier, and finally the monster looking directly at them. It raises the stakes perfectly. There are also lots of strong action verbs that keep the moment vivid and intense.
I like this one for its drama. The dash, the colon, and the italics really emphasize the dire situation the main character is in. I also love the dramatic effect of the paragraph break and the ending sentence. It’s short, powerful, and intense.
Sentences for Combining and Imitation
Sentence sets for combining:
"Ama is fighting, kicking, punching, and flipping Tano’s goons over her shoulder." (Kwame Crashes the Underworld, p. 125)
Ama is fighting.
She is kicking.
She is punching.
She is flipping Tano's goons over her shoulder.
"I'm in a room that looks like the inside of a cabin, complete with string lights, massive barrels, and OutKast posters." (p. 154)
I'm in a room.
The room looks like the inside of a cabin.
The room is complete with string lights.
The room has massive barrels.
The room has OutKast posters.
"I fling open the door, climb the stairs, and rush outside to find myself not in a hallway but on the deck of a colossal ship."
I fling open the door.
I climb the stairs.
I rush outside.
I find myself not in a hallway.
I find myself on the deck of a ship.
The ship is colossal.
"The weather turns warm, the chirping of the birds grows louder, and the lapping water is music to my ears." (p. 285)
The weather turns warm.
The chirping of the birds grows louder.
The lapping water is music to my ears.
Sentences for Imitation:
I like all of these sentences for two reasons. First, they use simple structural and punctuation moves that middle schoolers can easily imitate. They’re great examples of punctuation as craft—em dashes, ellipses, parentheses, colons, italics. Second, each sentence carries an emotional message: family moments, lessons learned, meaningful interactions with parents. They’re short and simple, yet they pack a lot of emotional weight and impact. I think it would be fun to show students these examples and then see what they write about their own families or the valuable lessons they’ve learned.
"Ma’s cinnamon rolls are reserved for special occasions–delicacies used to trick unsuspecting guests into thinking that we’re a fun loving family." (p. 8)
"He’s doing what he does best . . . causing havoc." (p. 125)
"She’s doing the same thing that Ma used to do when I would get stitches or a shot–she would try (and fail) to talk about video games to distract me from the pain." (p. 244)
"I learned a valuable lesson: It is debilitating to expect victory from yourself all the time." (p. 252)
"Proud. I’m not a disappointment–I’m a source of pride." (p.344)
Used this book in your classroom? Tell us how in the comments!
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