My Cultural Diet

Thanks to the “Magical Minority Initiative,” Tom Token is the very first Black student to attend the hallowed halls of St. Ivory Academy of Spellcraft and Sorcery. But upon arriving, Token is immediately confronted by his fellow student’s ignorance and racism as well as the shocking possibility that he is not, in fact, the school’s first minority student. But what happened to his predecessors, and why does this mystery involve the ghosts of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass? Harry Potter is a clear inspiration, if Voldemort and his Death Eaters were replaced by the KKK, that is. Though a fun read thanks to D.J. Kirkland’s bright, anime-inspired artwork, there are no real surprises or twists in Tom Token’s struggle against the magical academy’s systemic racism. Daniel Barnes’s story unfolds precisely as you’d expect it to, though if it encourages younger readers to learn more about Tubman, Douglass, and the Underground Railroad, then so much the better.

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