Meet Julius Carmichael: First Day Blues 

By Jonathan Carroll

Educator Writes and Self-Publishes Children's Book

By Junious Ricardo Stanton

Jonathan Carroll a third grade teacher at Moorestown Friends School has been thinking, dreaming and pondering about writing books for and about African-American youngsters to give them positive images and content that will also stimulate their enjoyment of reading. He enjoys teaching children and also enjoys reading and writing. So when he noticed there were very few books aimed at African-American children he started writing as a solution to a very real problem. 

"I started writing when I realized in my classroom there weren't many African-American authors for me to choose from so I decided to become one of them." Carroll explained. He decided to write stories that would relate to children's universal experiences: family, school, making friends, discovering how to navigate social relationships and learning important life lessons. 

"Not only did I feel there was a gap in the literature for children, I also thought there was a gap in that there weren't that many African-American male voices being heard in the literature for children. I wanted to fill that void so children would be able to understand how African-American boys are slightly different in their behavior and demeanor from other children. I also wanted to develop in young African-America boys a love of reading because if they don't read early, they're not going to read later on when it becomes more necessary to educate yourself."

Carroll deliberated on his plan, thoroughly weighed his options and finally decided to go the self-publishing route because he didn't find any large publishing houses publishing the types of books he was writing. "I felt that self-publishing would be a way to learn the business. I'd be able to market the books in the way I thought was best and reach the audience I felt was best and take charge of the whole project; do it my way." Carroll shared. 

By publishing the book himself, Carroll assumed control over every aspect of the project, its make up, the cover, lay out, content and editing. But he is also responsible for making all the marketing, promoting, and distribution decisions. "Officially the book comes out in May, we're planning a big release party and at this point we're working with distributors to target specific book stores so that when we do come out in May we'll be easily accessible to the whole community." 

As part of his marketing strategy Carroll plans to submit copies of the book to the book review publications and the educational markets such as elementary and middle schools, school libraries and also the English Departments of colleges and universities to show them the importance of using diverse images and materials.

The title of the book is, Meet Julius Carmichael: First Day Blues . It is about an eleven year old African-American boy who is returning to school from the summer vacation and his vicissitudes meeting a new classmate and becoming friends. Jonathan enjoyed the creative process, writing the book and anticipates this will be the first in a series of books about Julius Carmichael the central character of the book who is patterned somewhat after himself. 

"There's a lot of me in Julius Carmichael in that I was a young African-American boy who had to struggle and survive. I wanted to take a lot of things my parents tried to instill in me and place them into this character because I feel they are things that are positive and often a lot of the images that are thrown at African-American children aren't so positive. I wanted to take a lot of things that are positive and place them into this character so that children will be able to see that those characters do exist."

Aside from the sense of accomplishment he has from making his dream come true, Carroll wants his books to be successful, widely read and well liked. "We want Julius Carmichael to become a beloved character, i.e., the Harry Potters and the Ramona Quimby's and other children's characters of legend. So the next novel is already in the pipeline. It's being edited and proofread. We're looking at a Thanksgiving release, which is Meet Julius Carmichael: Nanna To The Rescue." 

Carroll plans to write the books so young readers share Julius' growing up experiences and see themselves in Julius' experiences. "We're certainly looking to grow up before children's eyes. Again we want to have Julius Carmichael be a character that children can relate to, look to and see themselves in. We'll take him to a point and I don't know what that point is at this particular time, but we'll take him to a point, as long as he's loved and accepted by the community and continues to be someone the children can look to a relate to." explained Carroll. 

For more information about the books you can E-mail Carroll at JC@Strikingpresence.com or call (609) 936-7278.