Books like Samankwe in the strange forest by Cyprian Ekwensi

Chinua Achebe’s 1958 classic follows Okonkwo, an Igbo wrestling champion, as he navigates pre‑colonial traditions and the disruptive arrival of European missionaries in Nigeria’s southeastern region.

In 1921, Iloro Nigeria's chief priest Ezeulu struggles to protect his Igbo traditions as British colonial rule and Christian influence clash, culminating in a tragic confrontation that challenges his authority and faith.

An African boy ventures into the realm of the dead and is lost for twenty‑four years, encountering stories drawn from unrecorded Yoruba myths.

After a forbidden love with a woodland spirit, Eden Fletcher returns from exile with a boy, provoking vengeful Lord Hern to disguise himself as a servant—and then fall in love with the very woman he once aimed to destroy.

Nantucket Island in the summertime—a dream come true, right? Not for twelve year old Adelaide, whose father died a year earlier and now has one ambition in life: to be a great explorer and adventuress like her idol, Amelia Earhart. Adelaide loves fantasizing about the future exotic places she’ll travel to, to help her escape what’s really going on. To Adelaide, going to her grandparent’s house on Nantucket for the whole summer, with her younger brother Louis in tow to take care of, sure doesn’t fit the bill. But, Adelaide couldn’t be more wrong. When, at her grandparent’s house, she decides to go out exploring when she comes across an extraordinary white rose in her grandmother’s garden. She clips it and boom! A chain of events is set in motion that pull her into another world of the Hidden Forest, a realm where she must battle the Merqueen to save her younger brother Louis, with the help of Max the Sankaty Lynx, McFadden the faerie fisherman and King Micah, a Native American islander. Through doing so, will Adelaide be able to bring herself back to life?

Teenager Keelie reluctantly follows her father into the Dread Forest, where elves, a fearsome elf grandmother, and a mysterious boy reveal that both humans and dark magic threaten the enchanted realm.