Stifpower 🆙

When I first created Aku, all I wanted to do was make a movie. That was the dream. And it happened fast. A few months after introducing my character Aku to the world, I optioned the film rights. It was splashy and kinda surreal. I was taking Zoom calls with folks in Hollywood from Indiana. I knew NOTHING about that world. In my head, it was already a smash hit. Frozen numbers. (That’s just how my brain works.) Dope animation. A cold soundtrack. Star-studded cast. Kids would watch it. Love it. Watch it again. Then come the toys, games, video games. Whatever Spider-Man was on, I wanted to be on. Except I did something crazy. I let the deal expire. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t even have a story. Just a character in a helmet. Hollywood moved on. What felt like the end of a dream sent me down the most laborious, unglamorous, least lucrative path. Chapter Books. And it was on this path, I rediscovered something I hadn’t really thought about since I was a kid. With a movie, I’d be the architect of Aku’s world. Kids get to visit. But everything is exactly how I want it. With a book, they help create it. Trae sounds like their classmate. Aku sounds familiar. His school reminds them of theirs. Their own experiences fill in the spaces between the pages. There’s ownership in that. There’s pride in finishing a book. Shoot, there’s pride in just starting a book! Books. man. They’re amazing. Every day I get messages about kids reading Aku. Either together. Alone. In classrooms. Book clubs. In their free time. And behind so many of these kids is an incredible network of people who believe in them. My Friends, companies, and complete strangers have helped put thousands of Aku books into their hands. Right now, there’s a NYC public school book club going on where kids have been showing up virtually every week, at night, all year. Teachers read digital copies of the book on the screen so kids don’t feel pressure to buy a book. This semester they’re reading Aku and it’s the first time each member got their own physical copy. 100 kids. The joy I feel watching kids make Aku their own has surpassed anything I imagined when I first dreamed of making a movie. I still dream of an Aku movie. But if it never happens, I’m good. Really good.

Aku 👩🏾‍🚀

Really really cool that NYC Public Schools have chosen Aku for their fall book club!! @AkuDreams @randomhousekids