Sunny is Harry. The outsider brought into a magical world, for which she has a natural talent, but has a lot of catching up to do with children who have already been studying magic for years.
Lambs are Muggles.
Leopard Knocks is Diagon Alley, and the introduction to magic happens in a very similar way through an unusual entrance ritual then a tour of magical shops.
Orlu is Hermione: technically brilliant at magic, but a little cautious, and always getting Sunny out of a tricky spot.
Witch school is in a small group or 1:1 led by experienced teachers, rather than institutional-style Hogwarts.
Ekwensu is Voldemort.
So, assuming you're OK with it following a very established pattern, it's great. The magic feels very different from Harry potter, drawing heavily on Nigerian mythology. The real strength of the novel is those Nigerian experiences: foods, scenery, home life, mythology. All of these feel very foreign to a western reader, and it's a refreshing experience.
I also really like the currency of the Leopard world - you can only gain it by learning something! And it drops from the sky instantly when you do, in proportion to the difficulty of the concept/skill mastered. Not only is that an amazing thought experiment for what capitalism would look like under such conditions, it's a clever literary device to signal to the reader "that was a big deal".
The weaknesses are (some spoiler-ish talk):
Sunny is a Mary-Sue: she's not only intuitively great at all sorts of magic, she's a pro soccer player. Although I have to cut it some slack on that point, as her soccer prowess was used to challenge the gender stereotyping and sexism in Nigerian society.
This super-powerful community of Leopard people somehow needs a group of inexperienced kids to find a serial killer and stop him from bringing the most powerful masquerade into the regular world.
The good guys win at the climax far too easily and everything is fine. Magic is a very tempting deus ex machina for the author here.
4.5 stars
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