What do you get when you combine Kwame Mbalia’s incredible imagination and world-building talent with trains, history, and ghosts? Nothing less than middle grade magic. The award-winning author of the best-selling Tristan Strong trilogy has created a secret world where kids can wield magic by summoning the power of their ancestors.

JAX FREEMAN AND THE PHANTOM SHRIEK
by Kwame Mbalia
Freedom Fire/Disney-Hyperion, October 2024
(via Defiore and Company)

On his twelfth birthday, Jackson « Jax » Freeman arrives at Chicago’s Union Station alone, carrying nothing but the baggage of a scandal back in his hometown. He’s been sent away from home to live with relatives he barely knows. But even worse are the strangers who accost him at the train station, including a food vendor who throws dust in his face and a conductor who tries to steal his skin.

At his new school, Jax is assigned to a special class for « summoners, » even though he has no idea what those are . . . until he accidentally unleashes an angry spirit on school grounds. Soon Jax is embroiled in all kinds of trouble, from the disappearance of a new friend to full-out war between summoning families.

When Jax learns that he isn’t the first Freeman to be blamed for a tragedy he didn’t create, he resolves to clear his own name and that of his great-grandfather, who was a porter back in the 1920’s. By following clues, Jax and his schoolmates unlock the secrets of a powerful Praise House, evade vengeful ghosts, and discover that Jax may just be the most talented summoner of all.

“Jax Freeman is my new best friend. I loved everything about this book—the characters, the humor, the page-turning adventure. I’m glad Kwame Mbalia is such a prolific writer because I will be bugging him for the sequel immediately.”—Rick Riordan, New York Times #1 best-selling author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians

“Funny, fast-paced, and full of heart and adventure. You’ll be laughing and cheering and racing through the pages—and guessing right up to the end.”—Shannon Messenger, New York Times best-selling author of the Keeper of Lost Cities series and Sky Fall series 

Kwame Mbalia is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and the publisher of Freedom Fire, an imprint of Disney Hyperion devoted to stories about the Black diaspora by Black creators. His debut middle-grade novel, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, was awarded a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and it was followed by Tristan Strong Destroys the World and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching.