Darius Daniels: Game On!

By Caroline Brewer

Cover Illustration by Glenn Brewer

Washington, DC

United States of America

Other books written or edited by Caroline Brewer now available include:

Kara Finds Sunshine on a Rainy Day

Barack Obama: A Hip Hop Tale of King’s Dream Come True

C is for Cocoa

The Jelani Tree

Parent Power: How to Raise a Reading Superstar

The Happy Teacher

Why I Teach

Having Fun Teaching Math

For the Obamas: A Big Book of Thank Yous

Find them at www.carolinebrewerbooks.com, as well as Amazon.com, and BarnesandNoble.com

Schools, Libraries, and Organizations are encouraged to contact Caroline at [email protected] for orders and to arrange Author Visits and Speaking Engagements.

About the Book

Darius Daniels: Game On! is a middle-grade rhythmic novel about an 11-year-old boy, a video game, and a great and scary adventure the boy cannot escape – until he hurts somebody. D was his name, you see, and he was on the Edge. Family and friends on one side, Getting together at his home. Him on the other, sometimes feeling alone, In a game world that made his head swirl. Jammed up his brain and rained Karate chops and knocked him for a Loop. He didn’t see it coming that Morning. Should have been a warning, but No. Oops.

To complete the journey with D, readers will get the joy of crossing a sea of word play. This book is chock-full of rhythm, rhyme, raps, riddles, and more than 10 forms of poetry.

Advance Praise

This is a masterpiece!

– Michelle Ajebon, Age 10, 4th grade

I would tell other kids to read this book because who wouldn’t love going into a video game?

– Joshua Ajebon, Age 11, 5th grade

"Darius Daniels: Game On! is a unique, beautiful blend of prose and poetry. The book will not only entertain children, but educate them as well."

– Glenn Brewer, Teacher and Award-winning Artist, Illustrator, Author and Comic Book Publisher

"Caroline Brewer has written a book that provides the tools that our children need in the language that they can encompass now. Ms. Brewer’s work captures poetic language in all of its rich array of poetic possibilities...not only the rap, but the Pulitzer Prize-winning form. It celebrates haikus, limericks, sonnets, blues, and spirituals, the acrobatics of language rhythm and movement that we showcase in our communities every day. Darius Daniels: Game On! should be in every classroom. I look forward to that day."

– Karen Wilson-Ama’Echefu, PhD, Storyteller, Teaching Artist and Singer

Caroline is a master storyteller; her voice and style are a breath of fresh air! You are going to love Darius and the rest of his crew (including his little sister, Ashanti!) and laugh out loud at all the fun, silly jokes here. Yay for Caroline! Game on, indeed!

– Amy Tipton, Editor of Feral Girl Books

"Caroline Brewer’s Darius Daniels: Game On! is definitely the power-up that re-energizes the idiom, ‘Life is a game.’ Which it is for Darius, who takes on the pixelated world of his imagination to battle monsters both on screen and internally. This easy-to-read series moves quick. The language is playful and sure to get young people excited about reading."

– Alan King, author of POINT BLANK and DRIFT

An Ocean of Thanks

To my beloved mother, the storyteller, the teacher, the preacher, the poet, the singer, the painter, the gardener, the guide, the wily and wise, the connector and protector, the courageous one, my very best friend and the inspiration for this story.

To my beloved sister Elizabeth Howard, nieces Genae Howard and Tykara Howard, who have been Liz’s righthand women in the exceptional care of our mother.

To Fort Wayne, Indiana, the city of my birth, and this book’s birth, to the Fort Wayne and Allen County school systems, leaders, principals, teachers, students, and parents, library systems, librarians, and ACPL Librarian Mary Voors, and Harriet Miller, Monica Werhle, Linda Michael, Jane Wuthrich, Julie Inskeep and The Journal Gazette, who embraced me as a new author and literacy advocate, and to so many of my dear family members and friends, including Camilla Kearnes-Grant and Alfred Curry, who reside there, you helped make this book possible, and necessary.

To Ivory, Jaylen, Elizabeth, Jasmine, Cara, Phillip, James, Abigail and all the other hungry readers of the world who have blessed me by sharing their voracious appetites for the wonders of stories and have allowed me to watch them blossom into even more spectacular human beings.

To my beloved book launch advisory board of my daughter Christian Dorisca, and her husband Alex Dorisca, Frankye and Marc Yves Regis, Tina Smith, Lisa Goodnight, Karen Wilson-Ama’Echefu, Vincent Robinson, Sherrice, Michelle, and Joshua Ajebon, Charlotte Avery, Mindy and Donovan Anderson, I thank all of you for your beauty, your kindness, and your trust in joining me on this journey, devoting your precious time and talents, and priceless support.

With deepest appreciation, again, to my dear friend Vince Robinson, an early reader and reviewer, for pushing especially hard over the past five years for me to get this book into the world, and supporting my every twist and turn on the journey with the wisest counsel and most extraordinary enthusiasm; to my beloved brother Glenn Brewer, for being an early reader, avid supporter, thoughtful advisor, and twice lending his outstanding talent to the cover art; to dear friend and Master Storyteller, Singer, Historian, and Teaching Artist Karen Wilson-Ama’Echefu for lending me her brilliant storytelling mind and acute listening skills, understanding of rhythm and the powerful role it has played in black lives, allowing us to make vibrant and artistic worlds with our words, syncopations and incantations; to dear friend and former Special Education Teacher Gayle Ferguson for always supporting my work and inviting me to share it with her students, including D.C.’s Slowe Elementary School 5th graders.

They became the first class to read the entire book (an early draft) and responded as thoughtfully and beautifully as I could have ever hoped. To dear friend and Artist and Children’s Author Lorenzo Pace for encouraging me to think even more like a child, to make the language louder and livelier, and play, play, play; to dear friend, former journalist and now teacher Frankye Regis, who inspired me to pursue writing books so many years ago and has been a champion of my work ever since, and her son, Marc Yves Regis, who was the first child to read the book back when he was in 4th grade and gave it the strongest endorsement I could have hoped for, saying it read like a movie in my mind; to dear friend and Journalist Drakeel Burns, an avid middle grade and YA book reader, who read one of the earliest versions and frankly let me know, for the children’s sake and mine, where the action was flat; to Samaria, who, when in fourth grade, trusted Darius and me to lead her into her first novel-reading experience, which remarkably changed her sense of self, allowing me to see a flower blossom in real time; to Deborah Ashley, a dear friend who has a PhD in friendship, who at one critical turning point suggested I affirm that I would enjoy the journey and it would proceed smoothly, effortlessly. Period. And so I affirmed, and I enjoyed, and it was, at times, remarkably smooth, effortless. Period.

To Eileen Robinson, the first professional editor to read the manuscript, and in doing so provide excellent feedback to help me better construct the story and cut it in half! Eileen also encouraged me try even more poetry than I ever imagined I could cram into one story and I’m grateful to say that her wisdom stayed with me throughout the process; to Amy Tipton for being a super-enthusiastic and incredibly fast proofreader and editor who provided terrific advice about the rhythmic nature of the story and the need to see Ashanti’s beautiful nature shine even brighter; to dear friend and USA Today features editor and writer extraordinaire Nichelle Smith for being a poet on her feet and an inspiration to our ancestors; to USA Today Education Reporter Greg Toppo for his book The Game Believes in You, which opened my eyes to the important learning potential that video games bring to the classroom experience.

To Angie Steward, the typesetter and book designer for this work, who sacrificed to work around-the-clock for months with me to typeset, design, and help proof and copyedit four volumes. Angie is extraordinarily talented, kind, patient, persistent, and dependable. This book is traveling the world today because Angie was my faithful partner in making it possible.

Importantly, to some of the world’s greatest poets, writers, lyricists, singers, musicians, and rappers - Marilyn Nelson, Nikki Giovanni, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Jayson Reynolds, Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Ashford and Simpson, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, India Arie, Doug E. Fresh, Salt-n-Pepa, TLC, Queen Latifah, Heavy D, Chubb Rock, Ketu Oladuwa and Jabari Exum, life is overflowing with so much more joy because of you and your artistry.

@2020 by Caroline Brewer. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author and publisher.

ISBN 978-1-7342909-2-9 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America

Cover Illustration by Glenn Brewer

Cover Design by Vince Robinson

Ebook formatting by Angie Steward

Title font by Dan P. Lyons

Published by Caroline Brewer

Unchained Spirit Enterprises

Washington, DC

www.carolinebrewerbooks.com

Email: [email protected]

About the Author

Caroline Brewer is grateful to be an author who has opportunities to inspire in children a deeper love and appreciation for learning. She’s written seven books for children, four for adults, and has edited five books for students. Darius Daniels: Game On! is Caroline’s 12th book and first middle grade novel. It’s been called a rhythmic beast and a feast of lessons on language, life, and love.

Caroline has been a reading teacher and classroom teacher, and as an author and consultant has presented readings, speeches, and seminars in seven states, Washington, D.C., and Ghana, West Africa to more than 25,000 teachers, children, tutors, parents, and librarians. Caroline has a background as an award-winning newspaper journalist, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and served as a Pulitzer Prize jurist.

Other books written or edited by Caroline Brewer now available include: Kara Finds Sunshine on a Rainy Day, Barack Obama: A Hip Hop Tale of King’s Dream Come True, C is for Cocoa, The Jelani Tree, Parent Power: How to Raise a Reading Superstar, The Happy Teacher, Why I Teach, Having Fun Teaching Math, and For the Obamas: A Big Book of Thank Yous.

Find them at www.carolinebrewerbooks.com

About the Illustrator

Glenn Brewer graduated with Honors and a BFA in Fine Arts from the Columbus College of Art and Design. He has created illustrations for numerous companies and publications including TSR Inc, Visionary Entertainment Studios, New Orleans Tribune, Frost Illustrated Newspaper, Tygeron Graphics, Graphic Classics, Mythworlde Media, Aramark, and Unchained Spirit