Serwa Boateng’s
Guide to Vampire Hunting
You can only choose one.
Would you rather:
A) Live with your parents as they travel the world , hunting vampiric monsters called adaze, learning how to handle a battle-ax and sword, and drawing magical Adinkra symbols, knowing you could die at any minute?
OR:
B) Go to middle school?
If you chose B, what are you thinking? B is clearly the more dangerous option.
— Rick Riordan
Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting
Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents best-selling YA author Roseanne A. Brown's middle grade debut about a pre-teen vampire slayer with a strong helping of Ghanaian folklore.
For most kids, catching fireflies is a fun summer activity. For twelve-year-old Serwa Boateng, it's a matter of life and death.
That's because Serwa knows that some fireflies are really adze, shapeshifting vampires from the forests of Southeastern Ghana. Adze prey on the blood of innocents, possessing their minds and turning them into hulking monsters, and for generations, slayers like Serwa and her parents have protected an unknowing public from their threats.
Serwa is the best adze slayer her age, and she knew how to use a crossbow before she could even ride a bike. But when an obayifo (witch) destroys her childhood home while searching for a drum, do Serwa's parents take her with them on their quest to defeat her? No. Instead, they dump Serwa with her hippie aunt and cryptic-obsessed cousin in the middle of Nowheresville, Maryland "for her own safety." Now, instead of crossbows and battle armor, she's dealing with mean girls and algebra, and for the first time in her life she doesn't have to carry a staff everywhere she goes, which is . . . kind of nice, actually.
Just as Serwa starts to get the hang of this whole normal girl who doesn't punch vampires every daything, an adze infiltrates her school. It's up to her to whip some of her classmates into monster-fighting shape before all of them become firefly food. And when she uncovers a secret that upends everything she thought she knew about her family's role in the slayer vs. adze war, Serwa will have to decide which side of herself—normal girl or slayer—is the right one.
After all, seventh grade is hard enough without adding vampires to the mix.
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Meet Serwa Boateng
Join pre-teen vampire slayer Serwa Boateng as she discovers that middle school is harder than it appears on television, especially when she has to avoid detention and turn her classmates into warriors before they become vampire food.
Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Witchcraft & Mayhem
Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents the highly anticipated sequel to Rosanne A. Brown's explosive novel about a preteen vampire slayer, inspired by Ghanaian folklore out now!
After a lifetime of fighting creatures of black magic, twelve-year-old Serwa Boateng has just learned a devastating secret: she herself is half vampire!
Now not only is she dealing with vampire puberty, she’s on the run from the organization of Slayers she trained her whole life to join.
Serwa's only ally is her aunt Boahinmaa, an obayifo who urges Serwa to embrace her vampire side. Boahinmaa and her underlings are on the hunt for the Midnight Drum, from which they hope to free Serwa's grandmother. When they learn that the Abomofuo have hidden the Midnight Drum deep within the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., what do they do? Stage a heist to steal it, of course!
For their plan to succeed, Serwa will have to get close to her rival, a Slayer named Declan Amankwah, without revealing her real nature. Declan gets under her skin like no one else . . . and might just force Serwa to confront some truths she's tried hard to deny.
Vampire puberty is the least of Serwa’s problems!
With both sympathy and laugh-out-loud humor, Rosanne A. Brown captures all the discomfort of a girl stuck between two worlds in this second book in the unputdownable Serwa Boateng saga.
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Praise for Serwa Boateng
“Rosie writes her characters with such lyrical power, wit, and empathy that you can't help falling in love with Serwa Boateng, her family, and friends.”
— Rick Riordan, #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Percy Jackson series
“Brown melds Ghanian folklore, smart action, thoughtful commentary about liminal spaces, and a healthy dose of tween hijinks, making for an exhilarating introduction to Serwa Boateng’s magic-filled world.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting is a thrilling middle grade adventure with a fresh take on vampires and characters that you will not only root for but love with all your heart.”
— Claribel A. Ortega, New York Times best-selling author of Witchlings
The Read Riordan Instagram account shared a Q&A with the New York Times best-selling author of Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting, Roseanne A. Brown. With some valuable insights from Serwa herself, Roseanne was able to answer some of our most burning questions in regard to protecting our necks from creatures such as the adze.
Through the magic of the internet, Roseanne A. Brown, author of Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting and one of the newest additions to the Rick Riordan Presents team, got together with veteran Kwame Mbalia, author of the Tristan Strong trilogy, to discuss what Black History Month means to them.
Asaase Yaa
Some goddesses are so cosmically powerful, you can’t even look them in the eyes. They command you to worship them and will not hesitate to strike you down if you disobey.
Other goddesses just want a large following on social media. Asaase Yaa (as-SAH-ah-say yah) is most definitely the second kind.
Declan Amankwah
For nearly half her life, Serwa has been trying (and failing) to get one over on this guy. In the Kwahu Easter Egg Hunt when they were seven, he beat her by a single egg. The foam weapon tournament a few years ago? Declan knocked her out in the very last round.
Meet annoying mosquito bites personified and the bane of Serwa’s existence.
Owuo
Who could ever guess that this non-assuming farmer dude is, in actuality, the sadistic and conniving god of death, as well as the direct source of all black magic in the world?
Better get to know this guy now. Because sooner or later, we all meet Owuo.
Mystical Creatures to Watch Out For
Here’s the bad news: An entire world of dark magic and vampiric monsters exists right beneath the surface of our mundane society.
The worse news? These creatures prey on humans.
Auntie Effie
What’s the first step you take when you get into serious trouble with your parents? For many of us, the answer is: head directly to your aunt or uncle’s house.
Thankfully, the cool aunt is here to help clean up the mess and provide Serwa with a new sense of direction.
Funtunfunefu-Denkyemfunefu
We all know it’s not easy being green. But we also know it’s even harder to find a cushy, well-paying job in the DC Metro area. Especially when you have two mouths to feed.
But if Funtunfunefu-Denkyemfunefu can teach us anything, it’s that, given the right opportunities, we can all find purpose and meaning in this crazy, mixed-up world. Even if we started life as a statue.
