Eedu

Born with skin like rich chocolate and an Afro as white as winter snow, Princess Eedu has been extraordinary from the moment she entered the world. But her birth comes at a terrible price when her mother, the beloved Queen Zuri, dies shortly afterward. Raised under the loving care of her devoted nursemaid Imari and cherished by her grieving father, King Ade, Eedu grows into a compassionate young princess whose beauty is matched by the goodness of her heart.

But one person cannot bear to see Eedu flourish: her stepmother, Queen Malaika.

Vain, calculating, and obsessed with being the greatest beauty in the land, Malaika seeks constant reassurance from an enchanted looking glass inhabited by a mysterious masked oracle. For years, the mirror gives her the answer she desires-until the day it declares that Eedu has surpassed her.

Consumed by jealousy, Malaika turns to the one person she trusts to carry out an unthinkable command: her younger brother, Shaka, a seasoned big-game hunter. She orders him to take Eedu deep into the African rainforest and make certain the princess never returns.

But Malaika has underestimated the bond between hunter and child.

Forced from the only home she has ever known, Eedu must survive a vast and unfamiliar wilderness where royal titles offer no protection. Her journey will bring her into the home of seven remarkable miner brothers, into the path of Prince Anabebe of a neighboring kingdom, and ultimately back into the sights of a queen whose jealousy will not be satisfied until Eedu is gone forever.

To reclaim her life, Eedu will have to discover that what makes her fairest of all was never her unusual appearance-it was the light within her.