Book Review: Jelani’s Key
by D. Amari Jackson
Publication Date: Aug 29, 2023
List Price: $9.99
Format: Paperback, 80 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9780979637438
Imprint: AALBC Books for Young Readers
Publisher: African American Literature Book Club
Parent Company: AALBC.com, LLC
Read an Excerpt from Jelani’s Key
Book Reviewed by Mel Hopkins
Pain into Promise
An immeasurable loss leads to a journey of cultural enlightenment, friendship, and self-discovery for 11-year-old protagonists Jelani and Bakare in the middle-grade book Jelani’s Key.
Secreted away on the eve of the Vernal Equinox, the boys use their pain to fuel an adventure-filled quest. They’ll study four ancestral doctrines: Cycles of Nature, the rise and fall of the Kemet Civilization, Great Kushites, and Ciphers, which will help to trigger the boys’ genetic memory.
Already armed with talents and skills in astronomy, mathematics, deductive reasoning, and a key to unlock the mystery, the two boys will solve puzzles to become Jegna, protectors of African antiquity and culture.
If successful, their reward will not only change their world but the world as we know it.
In this era of public school administrators poised to indoctrinate students with half-truths, Jelani’s Key’s protagonists share with readers how to employ critical thinking skills, including fact-checking statements before accepting them as accurate.
Jelani’s Key shares an essential lesson for every age group regarding the emotional impact of losing a loved one to death and how to channel those emotions into something useful.
I highly recommend Jelani’s Key for all life-long learners. The chapter book opens the mind to discovery and knowledge.
Jelani’s Key. by D. Amari Jackson was released for publication on August 29, 2023 —The 12-chapter book is available for purchase through aalbc.com and anywhere fine books are sold.
25% of the profit from the sale of Jelani’s Key goes to support the ASA Restoration Project, a non-profit tax-exempt organization. For more information, visit the IKG Cultural Resource Center.
Related Article: Back to (Mysteries) School by Mel Hopkins ▶
Is the oldest storytelling format, the monomyth, also known as The Hero’s Journey, one of the templates used for awakening the human consciousness in the Kemetic Mysteries System? The people of Kemet (Egypt) created this system that students took approximately 40 years to complete. Today, Writing Fellow, Novelist, and award-winning Media Producer D. Amari Jackson revisits the educational structure to test this probable theory in his latest book, Jelani’s Key.