The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Mbalia, Kwame. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. Disney-Hyperion, 2019.

Thirteen-year-old Tristan Strong is practicing boxing when his mom comes into his room and tells him it is time to go. Tristan is going to stay with his grandparents on their farm in Alabama for a month. Tristan lives in Chicago, but he hasn't been doing too well lately, so his parents decided it would be a good idea if he got a little break from home. Lately he has been getting into fights at school. Tristan comes from a proud line of male boxers, and is expected to uphold the Strong legacy. His family mantra is literally, "Strongs keep punching." Tristan feels ashamed for losing his first boxing match last night. His father and grandfather are clearly disappointed in him. On top of that, Tristan is still grieving the death of his best friend, Eddie, who died in a tragic bus accident a few weeks ago. Eddie left behind a journal which he used to collect the best African American and African myths and stories that he came across. The journal has been glowing green, but only Tristan can see it. Halfway through the car ride to Alabama, curiosity gets the better of Tristan and he opens the journal. He has a strange vision. He sees a giant man with an ax and a talking rabbit sending someone small on a mission to search for something. Tristan wakes up, sweating. He assumed he was dreaming, but isn't sure. What he saw felt so real. Soon they arrive at his grandparents' farm.

That night, Tristan is woken up in the middle of the night by someone trespassing in his room. That someone happens to be a live, ten-inch, sap-shooting doll named Gum Baby. Gum Baby steals Eddie's journal. He chases after her by following her trail of sap and finds himself at the edge of his grandparents' farm by an old forest. He enters the forest and follows Gum Baby to a particularly old tree. His Nana told him it is called The Bottle Tree. Tied to its branches are old bottles that were used to capture "haints," or evil spirits, a tradition brought over by slaves from Africa. When Gum Baby will not give Tristan back the journal, Tristan punches the tree in frustration and accidentally sets loose a haint and releases it through a fiery hole, or portal, into another world called Alke. Tristan gets sucked into the hole as well, along with Gum Baby and the journal. Tristan wakes up in a strange new land populated by African gods and African American folktale heroes. This is Alke. In the sky is the burning hole Tristan created when he punched the tree and accidentally set loose the evil spirit. Tristan has a strange dream that he is in a dark place. In the place he meets Uncle C, who is the escaped evil spirit. Uncle C wants him to bring him Eddie's journal.

Tristan wakes up from his dream to find himself falling into a fiery water called the Burning Sea in a region of Alke known as MidPass. He and Gum Baby must swim away from three terrifying bone ships. They are rescued by a flying raft. The pilot of the raft is a girl named Ayanna, who is around Tristan's age. There are other Midfolk on the raft. One of them is Brer Fox, a character Tristan recognizes from his Nana's tales. Ayanna steers the flying raft back toward the Thicket, a secret hide-out for MidPassers and the place where the African American folklore gods have their meetings. On the way there, they are attacked by fetterlings, also referred to as iron monsters. These are magical evil chains that are brought to life and hunt down innocent folks to take back to their boss, the Maafa. Tristan tries to fight them off to rescue Brer Fox, but Brer is taken away. So is Eddie's journal, which turned into a paper version of Eddie before being taken by the iron monsters. Tristan tries punching the fetterlings with his boxing skills, but he isn't able to save Brer Fox or the journal, and feels like a failure.

At the Thicket, the MidPasser's secret hideout, Tristan meets John Henry and Brer Rabbit, two characters he also recognizes from his Nana's tales. Tristan joins a meeting with the gods where they discuss what to do about the iron monsters that are attacking and kidnapping their people. The monsters chain their people and take them back to their leader, a mysterious force called the Maafa. Tristan gets angry and frustrated that none of the adults are listening to him and unleashes a magical power he didn't know he had. He starts to tell his story, and as he does, the butterflies in the glade re-enact his tale. The gods inform him that he is an Anansesem, a storyteller gifted with special abilities, like manipulating his environment. This changes things somewhat. Brer Fox thinks the only way to defeat the iron monsters is to find Anansi's Story Box, which they can find with an Anansesem, like Tristan. Brer is rather adamant about finding this Story Box. He persuades the others. It is decided that they will steal the trickster god's Story Box from Nyame in order to lure Anansi out of hiding. The hope is that Anansi will then help them seal the hole in the sky, which will help defeat the iron monsters by weakening them.

Tristan does not want to go on this mission; he doesn't feel like a hero at all. Henry John asks him to go on a walk and gives him comforting words, as well as a magical pair of fingerless gloves. Suddenly, iron monsters attack the Thicket. Tristan uses the gloves to fight off the iron monsters alongside Henry John. The others are leaving for the mission to steal the Story Box; the gods tell Tristan to go with and they will defend the Thicket. Tristan reluctantly goes. He, Ayanna the girl pilot, and Chestnutt the bunny will be the ones going on this quest. Gum Baby hides on the raft and ends up being a part of their team too. They travel to the Golden Crescent, where Nyame, the sun god, dwells in his great palace. The Golden Crescent is beautiful but eerily quiet, as is the palace. They enter Nyame's great hall and realize Nyame is paralyzed, making him look like a statue. The reason he cannot move is because there are iron monsters and brand flies poisoning him and keeping him still as he sits on the throne. Tristan uses his Anansesem storytelling power to spin a story that attracts the iron monsters and pulls them off Nyame. Together, he, Ayanna, Gum Baby, and Chestnutt defeat the iron monsters. Tristan thinks Nyame will give them the Story Box because they helped free him of the fetterlings, but it turns out the Story Box is not there. Nyame tells Tristan to try Anansi's lair; that is where they must go to find the Story Box. He also gives Tristan an adinkra charm for his bracelet which gives him the ability to focus on his surroundings and gain clarity. The group travels by flying raft to Anansi's lair, but again, no Story Box. Instead, they find notes and diagrams leading them to believe that the Story Box is in the Ridge.

The Ridge is a heavily fortified mountain city. The group sneaks onto a train in the trash compartment that is headed into the mountain city. They sneak in through one of the tunnels in the mountain and enter the Atrium, where they know from the diagrams they found is where the Story Box will be. However, they are captured. One of the guards who captures them is Thandiwe, a warrior princess. The Ridgefolk call down their ancestors of the mountain for a trial. They will be determining what to do with Tristan and his friends. Tristan realizes he needs to do something to save them all. He starts telling a story about the iron monsters, who he realizes are attacking everywhere. They attacked Nyame and took his people while he had to watch helplessly, as well as MidPass and the Ridge. As he tells the story, he conjures images with shadows from the mountain. He also conjures a monster, Abiyoyo. He loses control, though, and the monster comes to life. Tristan gets everyone in the Ridge to call the Abiyoyo's name, which is what the children do in the lullaby his Nana would tell him to make it go away. This works. The Abiyoyo dissolves and Tristan is now considered a hero. Having gained the Ridgefolk's trust, it is decided that they will give him the Story Box.

Just as they are about to present it to him, a new character enters the scene. This is High John, an African prince-turned-slave-turned god. High John rides a black crow the size of a stretch limo and is said to transport people's souls and bring them back without hurting a person's body. He is one of Tristan and Eddie's favorite mythical heroes. He demands the Story Box for himself. He wants to use its power to defeat the iron monsters. Tristan knows this will not work though, and refuses to give it to him. High John then pulls Tristan out of his body and whisks his soul away to MidPass to show him the devastation that is occurring there. He wants to win his argument. Tristan, however, does his own thing and uses his out-of-body spirit to help the MidPassers escape the flames and iron monsters attacking them. He then conjures a smoke and fire figure, who is supposed to be High John. This figure protects the MidPassers from harm. Tristan sends a message to John Henry to meet him at the Golden Crescent, before losing strength and fainting. He wakes up back in the Ridge. It turns out no time has passed. High John has relinquished his request for the Story Box. It turns out Tristan won that argument. Tristan opens the Story Box at last, but to his disappointment, it is empty. That is apparently how Anansi brought it to them. Tristan falls asleep during a feast and dreams again of the evil haint, Uncle C. Uncle C wants Tristan to bring him the Story Box. He takes away all of Tristan's memories of Eddie except for one--the memory of Eddie reaching a hand out for help on the school bus--as collateral.

Later that night, the chief of the Ridge gives Tristan a second adinkra charm that gives him the ability to commune with the dead. Just then, the iron monsters attack the Ridge. Tristan uses his magical fingerless gloves to fight off the fetterlings, but there are just too many of them. All hope seems lost for Tristan and his friends, but at the last minute, High John comes to the rescue and saves them all. However, Ayanna is badly hurt from the poison of brand flies. High John takes Thandiwe, Tristan, Gum Baby, and Chestnutt, who is also wounded, onto his crow to go and try to get some medical help. Before they leave, the chief of the Ridgefolk gives Tristan the Story Box to take with him. Tristan hopes to get Nyame to repair it. They will fly to the Golden Crescent, where they hope to get medical aid and have Nyame open the Story Box. On the way there, Tristan tells an unconscious Ayanna the story of what happened with Eddie on the school bus as a way to distract her from her painful injuries. It is the only memory he has left of Eddie, as the evil haint, Uncle C, has taken away all his other ones as punishment for not bringing him the Story Box. High John flies them down to a small forest, where they get help from the Mmoatia, or forest fairies. The fairies, who have healing abilities, will take care of Ayanna and Chestnutt. Feeling a little better knowing his friends are being cared for, Tristan goes off with Thandiwe, High John, and Gum Baby to Nyame's palace. There Nyame fixes the Story Box.

Just then, they see a ship in the marina. An army of iron monsters pours out of it. High John gives Tristan a third aninkra charm that gives him two additional pair of boxing gloves. These "night gloves" will help him in battle. Tristan and Gum Baby stay on the rooftop garden and fight off the fetterlings, while High John and his crow take down the poisonous brand flies. Nyame the sun god attacks the water using his divine weather abilities, and Thandiwe goes to help MidFolk, who have met them there, led by John Henry. They all wage war on the iron monsters. Tristan realizes that the iron monsters are too many and too strong. He and his friends will never win. He decides to do something crazy. He opens the Story Box, catching all the monsters' attention, and suddenly every member of the enemy starts charging toward the palace, where he is. He turns the Story Box into a backpack and goes down to face them. He walks through the sea of iron monsters which let him part, and toward the dark ship in the marina. He realized the ship must be the Maafa. Tristan knows Uncle C is aboard the ship.

On board the ship, Tristan sees all the victims the Maafa has captured. They are all held in chains like slaves. The Maafa speaks to Tristan through the voices of several of the chained captives. Tristan makes a deal with the Maafa. He realizes it is just a physical manifestation of Alke's pain and suffering. It is a slave ship, and a reminder of a painful time in the collective imagination of Alke. Rather than chase the Maafa away and push it down into the depths of the sea like the Alkean gods did before, Tristan knows he must honor the Maafa's story and tell it. He promises to tell the Maafa's story to the people of Alke instead of ignoring it. The Maafa agrees to retreat down into the depths of the water. Having dealt with the Maafa, Tristan then goes to deal with Uncle C.

Uncle C is not what Tristan thought. He takes the form of half a man, half cotton. Tristan realizes the "C" in his name is short for Cotton. If the Maafa is pain incarnate, Tristan realizes Uncle C is greed. Tristan persuades Uncle C to give him back all his memories of Eddie as well as Eddie's journal. Uncle Cotton does and then asks for the Story Box. Tristan hands it over to him. But when Uncle Cotton reaches in, Gum Baby pops out and "sap attacks" him. The sap sticks to the evil saint's cottony figure and he sinks into the water. The Maafa is sinking down, fulfilling its promise to return to its home in the watery abyss. Uncle Cotton falls into the water, and disappears, after swearing to avenge Tristan for what he has done. Tristan and Gum Baby escape from the flooding water into a little room. As they enter, it turns into a school bus. Tristan reunites with a ghost version of Eddie. It turns out his adinkra from the Ridgefolk allows him to commune with the dead. He says goodbye to Eddie and leaves the room. Eddie told him to look in a room next door for something, so Tristan does. There he finds someone.

Tristan and Gum Baby swim to shore, where they find everyone else celebrating victory. It turns out the iron monsters all dissolved when Uncle C and the Maafa were defeated. Ayanna is limping, but otherwise she is okay. Everyone congratulates Tristan on a job well done. Tristan is too angry to celebrate their victory, though. With the help of Gum Baby, he reveals to everyone the truth about Brer Rabbit. He shows them what he found on the ship--the real Brer Rabbit. He now knows that the sandy bunny they have trusted all along is really an imposter. Nyame makes the imposter reveal himself. It turns out it is Anansi, the trickster god. Anansi was pretending to be Brer Rabbit all along. He wanted the Story Box for its power, but wanted others to do his dirty work for him. As punishment for his cowardice and trickery, Anansi is turned into a smartphone. Tristan gets to keep the smartphone, which is also where the stories from the Story Box are being stored. Anansi, who is also known as the Weaver, is assigned to help sew up the hole between worlds and also to help Tristan with his storytelling project in the human world for as long as Tristan sees fit.

Tristan says goodbye to all his friends. He sees that John Henry is building a bridge to connect the regions of Alke and MidPass, and is pleased. He hops onto High John's crow. High John will fly him to the hole in the sky, through it, and back into his world, where Tristan and Anansi will try and seal the hole. As Tristan soars through the sky, he feels a strong connection to the land of Alke and vows to return. High John safely delivers Tristan to the human world, as promised. Tristan says goodbye. Now it is just him and his Anansi-phone, which a miniature spider Anansi speaks to him from. Tristan shines a SpiderCam on the hole and Anansi uses his magical weaving skills to weave up the hole between worlds. Tristan walks back to his grandparents' farm with his magical new phone. As he walks, he begins to record the first story from Eddie's journal. He is looking forward to reading the journal and sharing Eddie's wonderful tales about Alke with the world.