Shadowshaper

Shadowshaper is an urban fantasy young adult novel written by Daniel José Older and originally published in 2015. The first book in the Shadowshaper Cypher series, Shadowshaper follows an Afro-Boricua teenager named Sierra who discovers she has a magical and spiritual family heritage. The book was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2015 and was shortlisted for the 2015 Kirkus Prize. This study guide refers the 2015 paperback Scholastic Inc. edition.   

Plot Summary

At the request of Manny, the local junkyard owner, 15-year-old Sierra paints a mural on an abandoned building nicknamed the Tower. To Sierra’s surprise, her Grandpa Lázaro, who has been unable to speak since his recent stroke, urges Sierra to finish the mural as soon as possible. Lázaro tells Sierra she is a shadowshaper, like members of her family before her, and he warns her someone is coming to destroy their kind. Lázaro also tells Sierra she can trust Robbie, a boy from her school, to help her, before advising her to find someone named “Lucera.”

Sierra tries to ask her mother, María, and Manny about what it means to be a shadowshaper, but both are evasive.