Congratulations are in order for Academy Award winning actress, Octavia Spencer, who has just signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster to release two books aimed at young adults, inspired by classic investigative series like Nancy Drew. The problem? The project is titled Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective and the first book is summarized as such:
Randi Rhodes isn’t your average twelve-year-old. She’s a Brooklyn vigilante with a Tae Kwon Do black belt. But circumstances take a turn for the worse when Randi’s mother passes away and her father decides to move to the small and sleepy town of Deer Creek, Tennessee. Randi couldn’t be more unhappy—until a mystery arises: the town’s two-hundred-year-old time capsule, which is rumored to contain hidden treasure, inexplicably disappears. Randi must solve the case, as the town’s fate hangs in the balance.
Wait a second. There’s something wrong here.
How can you call someone a ninja if she knows Tae Kwon Do? Doesn’t Spencer realize that each come from two different cultures? Granted, both ninjas and tae kwon do are Asian but one, an overhyped mercenary occupation turned hipster joke is based on the ninjitsu martial arts from Japan and the other is from Korea. You know, two separate countries on two separate land masses? Just east of China?
Octavia, darling, I know we all look alike but it doesn’t take that much to fact-check these things before you announce your new book deal. And if it’s your marketing team who came up with this cutesy title, then shame on them for not even looking it up on Wikipedia first. At least make Randi a black belt in karate.
On the plus side, it looks like these books don’t contain any sparkly vampires, unhealthy relationships and fifty shades of a color.
