What if Harry Potter was a black kid?
That’s the question that author Troy CLE initially tried to answer when he created his character, Louis Proof.
But it would be simplistic to paint Louis as simply a black version of the beloved Harry. Louis is a very different character. The brainchild of Troy, Louis loves listening to hip-hop, racing radio-controlled cars, and hanging out with his best friend, Brandon. If he sounds a little normal, maybe it’s because he is meant to be.
Of his character, Troy says, “I couldn’t find any action hero kids who looked like me in popular literature. That’s what sparked me to write this book.” And where is comes from is pretty amazing. The 29 year old New Jersey native grew up and still lives (according to his myspace page) in the urban, gang-infested city of East Orange, NJ. However, Troy didn’t fall victim to the stereotypes. He studied classical piano and acting, and went on to succeed at New York University, including earning degrees in American literature and English, and a masters in digital design.
Despite his successes, Troy couldn’t shake the desire to create something that reflected his roots. The Marvelous World series was inspired by his own vow to create a movie where kids looked and lived like he did. While a big fan of Spielberg’s “The Goonies”, Troy realized that the kids in that movie didn’t look like him. In the Marvelous World series, the 13 year-old kid from New Jersey sounds a little like Troy might have been like as a child.
But that’s where the similarities appear to end. While Louis’ fictional world takes off in a whirlwind of fantasy, science fiction, hip-hop, gaming, race cars and Anime. Troy’s real life world has taken off in a manner that’s a little more mainstream (no comas, no magic portals) but no less fantastic.
Troy’s continuing rise to fame isn’t completely a solo effort. He had a little help from some pretty impressive friends. For starters, the cover art for the first book of the series was created by Daryl Mandryk, formerly of EA Sports and now the lead artist for Disney’s video game company, Propaganda Games. And the book’s back cover was created by Joe DiVelario, who was the visual effects designer for the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie now infamous’ flick, “Mr. And Mrs. Smith.”
But Troy still couldn’t find a publisher. He didn’t stop trying. David Finn, owner of the public relations firm Ruder Finn, saw potential in Troy’s book and offered a hand. David lent his resources to help Troy self-publish his book and become his own publicist. And the hype began, resulting in deals with Simon and Schuster and Random House.
Since then, the buzz around Troy’s book has exploded. It is, quite likely, the second most anticipated new release of the summer. And oh yeah, Harry Potter isn’t the only book that you can pre-order. Pre-order The Marvelous Effect
To hear a snippet as read by Malcolm Jamal-Warner, click here.
Troy CLE, The Marvelous Effect, Marvelous World, Harry Potter, sci-fi, gaming, Daryl Mandryk, Ruder Finn, Joe DiVelario
April 19th, 2007 at 10:07 am
[...] What’s the difference? April 19th, 2007 by Kelly Who knew that there would be such strong feelings about my post about “The Marvelous World” series? Ironically, while the dialogue about race that followed on such sites as digg was a bit dispiriting, it was more my classification of the book that set most people off. In fairness, I was warned by a fellow blogger shortly after posting. I had no idea that people felt that strongly about it. [...]
April 19th, 2007 at 11:48 am
If Potter was black, he’d be David Blain
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:43 am
[...] April 23rd, 2007 by Kelly The author of The Marvelous Effect contacted me with the following clarification: I am so sorry that I did not clarify this. If I did say Marvelous World was Science Fiction I am sorry. I DO NOT CLASSIFY IT AS SCIENCE FICTION! It is fantasy to me. I had no idea anyone would think it was Science Fiction. I just wrote a fantasy story with Science Fiction elements that I did not even know would be thought to me Science Fiction. Marvelous World is fantasy with a few Science Fiction elements that are not the focus of the story at all. [...]
April 27th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Wait what are his successes? Graduating college?
May 16th, 2007 at 9:16 am
[...] Also, be sure to check out her review of Posted in General Link to this Entry Email This Entry [...]
May 28th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
I actually know Troy. I work for scholastic, and I went to one of his readings. he’s a very nice guy.
May 28th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
also, the book is amazing, and the characters are like every kid in the world. Read his book. Also, come check out the story i wrote about it on scholastic.com/news
June 12th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
[...] few weeks ago, I posted about The Marvelous Effect, which has been referred to as “the black Harry [...]
June 14th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
[...] anticipated The Marvelous Effect. I first met Troy when he was kind enough to help me out with a post or two about his book. The post summarizing the release of The Marvelous Effect remains the most popular post on my site [...]
July 18th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
…and that’s why my fave books are sometimes the ones without a picture on the front. The main character looks like each and every reader.
October 28th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
[...] read more | digg story [...]
October 31st, 2007 at 2:22 am
[...] Propaganda Games, and Joe DiVelario, of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” fame.[…] Thanks to lawmummy for providing this nice story on Digg (more than 677 [...]
June 12th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
[...] May 2007. The book has attracted such big names as Malcolm Jamal-Warner, illustrator Daryl Mandrhttp://www.tinytreasury.com/what-if-harry-potter-was-a-black-kid/The Official Site of The New York Mets: Team: Player InformationJoseph smith won three letters in [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
[...] read more | digg story [...]
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