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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.
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
* * * * *
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 20
December 2011
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