As a child, author Jamaal Fridge was a reluctant reader with no father, bad grades, and poor prospects in life.  The whole family was worried about him, because he was bright, but unmotivated.

 

Video games and TV could command his attention for hours, but books and homework would quickly put him to sleep.

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At a certain point, his mother got so desperate that she brought him to church and asked the pastor to pray for him.

 

Then Jamaal hit rock bottom. He failed 5th grade.

 

Something had to change. So, his mom tried a different tactic: better grades meant more games.

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Suddenly, Jamaal's grades improved. But that wasn't the real breakthrough.

 

Engagement was.

 

A kid who struggled to stay awake reading Charlotte's Web could stay up into the early morning playing Pokémon. And when God touched his heart and made him want to create video games, Jamaal realized something deeper:

 

The problem wasn't that he was lazy, it was that school and books weren't holding his attention.

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So he set out to create stories that didn't compete for a child's attention. They earned it.

 

He writes stories that pull kids in, hold them there, and grow them holistically. He aids parents, teachers, and ministers pull meaningful conversations out of each chapter, and provides vocabulary support to bolster young people's development, without breaking their focus.

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Because as Jamaal learned in his educational experience, when learning is organic, it sticks.