Nationwide — Julius Faison, a 12-year-old African American boy from New York City, enjoys reading adventurous books so much that he has written his own book about a Black superhero. When the pandemic struck and he transitioned to virtual learning, he and his mom began working on creative storytelling to further develop writing skills. One story led to the publication of his first book, Jewels and Stella: The Secret, which tells the story of Jewels, also a 12-year-old boy, his friends, and his pet bird who are fighting evil to save the world.Julius attends Durham Nativity School and lives in North Carolina with his mom, dad, brother and a host of animals, including Stella, their pet parrot. In addition to reading, he enjoys playing soccer, chess, gaming, and spending time with his family.

“It was exciting to publish this book. To be honest, when my mom said the story could turn into a book, I was skeptical but I knew she had published before. Each day we added to the story and we worked with a team to bring the book to a reality through Kindle Direct Publishing. When the actual finished book was delivered to our house, I was very proud because of my accomplishment but also because the superhero is Black. I love Greek mythology and usually, the characters are not Black so it is nice to see a character on the cover with brown skin! I plan to donate some of the profit from the sales of my book to my school, Durham Nativity which is a boys’ school with predominately Black and Latinx boys. I also plan to save and invest in new soccer equipment and in coding technology. My dream is for the book to be made into an animated movie produced by a Black company like Tyler Perry productions!”