Based on the life of a real warrior queen, Nzingha fought the Portuguese over kidnapping her people to be slaves in Angola. Brilliant idea and artwork, but the story wasn’t executed as well. It felt more like an origjn story. The part about her being a warrior was so inconsequential at the end wrapping up most of her life in a catchall sentence or two. Most of the book is about her childhood, which was that she was the daughter of a wise king, to be succeeded by his chubby lazy eldest son. First, why did he have to be overweight and therefore lazy? And second, why must superwomen be described as such incorrigible selfish unlikeable girls? There were so many missed opportunities to tell an inspiring story and it missed the mark. Still a pick for telling the story in the first place and the gorgeous artwork. ( )

This book was very interesting for history. It irritates me that this was not part of American historical education. It is an easy read and there are many fascinating historical facts and resources at the end. The authors of the Royal diaries and dear America diaries do very well with bringing forth historical characters both real and fictional that are true to the time and very real to the reader. Specifically Patricia McKissack, I wish they would make this one into a movie as well. But over all my only wish for this kid series is that there was a movie series of them all and an adult version of them as well. I feel they are good starters for getting anyone but especially kids into history and/or writing. ( )

The conceit of this book - the Portuguese priest that Nzingha's father captured has been secretly educating her and her sisters and told her she should start a diary - is very weak. Nzingha shows so much contempt and mistrust for the priest that it doesn't make any sense for her to start this diary at his suggestion. It makes more sense for her to throw the book in the river to spite him, given her attitude to him. But that wouldn't give an excuse to add Nzingha to the Royal Diaries series so obviously that's not what she does. But the sense that this diary, by its very nature, is unrealistic to who Nzingha likely was, makes the book a bit of a tough sell. But I have so much fondness for this series from my childhood nostalgia, that I'll mostly let it slide. I can definitely see why I enjoyed it and the rest of the series so much as a kid when it was easier for me to suspend my disbelief. ( )

Personally, I felt like this was one of the better, stronger books in the series. Pretty much all of this was new to me and I loved learning about Nzingha. She was a strong, fierce warrior and she should be more known and not forgotten. I'm so glad I got to read this book. I would recommend this to anyone, but it is obviously for younger readers. Still, 5 out of 5 stars. ( )

I loved the adventures and all of the bravery Nzinga held in her diary of part of her life. The detail made the setting, time and movements so clear in my head. ( )