Shadows of Sherwood

In the Robyn Hoodlum series, Kekla Magoon puts her own spin on the Robin Hood folktale, combining an adventurous middle-grade story with complex ideas about social change. The Robyn Hoodlum series reimagines the hero of the English legend as a 12-year-old biracial Black girl living in a dystopian near future. Robyn is forced to grow into Robyn Hoodlum when she is thrust into the harsh realities of an unequal world. Magoon reimagines the folklore’s central idea—a noble thief, who steals from the rich to give to the poor—as an act of resistance and social justice. Stealing food and medicine from the tyrannical government of her city is not just an act of rebellion; it is also Robyn’s way to show the government that their narratives and power are not absolute. In the process, Robyn has a lot of fun, conducts daredevil heists, and makes great friends. Thus, Magoon reimagines the 14th-century-origin Robin Hood tale for contemporary readers, developing the story’s ideas about equality and friendship in a 21st-century context. Magoon’s trilogy is a part of a movement in young adult and middle-grade literature in which authors retell age-old stories in a contemporary