As an African-American parent with three blossoming readers, I frequently find myself at the library looking for books to help stimulate my children's love of reading. Inevitably, these books will be written by Caucasian authors and will reflect their culture accordingly. This is perfectly fine, as children need to have an active understanding of the world around them. While there is no shortage of books written by African American authors that reflect this cultural point of view, those books are typically for established readers, typically ages 5 and up, or they are books that are intended for parents to read to their children. For new and developing readers, there aren't many series of books that reflect the African American experience, thus I felt the need to create The Adventures Of Jamal.
I think that series like the Bob Books and others are excellent tools for developing readers, and I hope to use a similar concept with The Adventures Of Jamal. I think it's important that children see themselves and their culture reflected in positive ways at an early age, and that's the aim of this series of e-books. Jamal is a typical kid, with two loving parents, good friends, and a pet cat. While I believe the books will certainly present an image not typically seen in books for beginning readers, I think the stories and concepts conveyed are universal and can be enjoyed by all children, regardless of their ethnicity. The goal is help them learn to read by presenting simple concepts like short and long vowel sounds, consonants, blends, long vowel sounds, and counting through a series of fun, progressively more complex stories.
I am not an educator. I'm simply a parent who knows the windows of a child's imagination that can open when they gain confidence in their ability to read. When coupled with images that mirror their culture, I think that process can be accelerated, as children naturally gravitate towards things that they find familiar.
The Adventures Of Jamal is such a medium.
