Lost Soul

The Perilous Pedagogy of Tajalik Stokes (Volume 1) by Marsan Q. Champion

Tajalik Stokes (Taj-a-leak) is a 14 year-old middle school student who is growing up on Chicago’s north side. He is travelling a path of destruction as he is running with the notorious Vice Lord street gang. After many suspensions from school Tajalik, is now facing expulsion and a transfer to an alternative school. Tajalik has been labeled as a special education student because of his diagnosed learning disabilities. Through his frustrations of not being able to fit in with the regular school population, Tajalik has developed a character of defiance and disobedience. His mother, Yolanda Stokes, is doing everything she can as a single mother to get through to her son but is losing patience as he continues with his sinful nature.
After losing his older brother (Tyan Stokes) to gang violence, Tajalik seems to be heading in the same direction as he has been constantly involved in fights with rival gang members and selling narcotics. He and his best friend Trunk (Newton Ellis) share the same gang affiliation and continuously find themselves apart of devious acts. Tajalik is set to commit a murder that will change his life for ever. All the while, two interesting characters, Mr. Alfred Justice (Tajalik’s school trust counselor) and Seymoore Awminus (leader of the Vice Lord’s north side region) are steadily at odds with each other and a possible head-on collision is brewing as they battle for influence over Tajalik in his oblivious quest for salvation.

Marsan Q. Champion

Marsan Quintel Champion was born in Evanston, Illinois, an outlining suburb of North Chicago. He would develop a passion for education and sports as he continued to grow in his environment. Champion witnessed the rewards of hard work after being accepted to the University of Miami with where he played football and ran track.
Champion graduated from the University of Miami in 1998 after he completed a double major in English and Communications. After graduating, he worked nearly two years in the print and broadcast media fields. Champion then shifted his focus to education. He worked as an English teacher/ varsity football and track coach at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Sr. High School in Miami, Florida for 5 years before leaving to Palm Beach County, Florida to become a vice principal. During his time in education, Champion enrolled in Nova Southeastern University where he completed graduate school making education his primary focus.
Having worked in lower-socioeconomic school settings, Champion witnessed the atrocities in the reading curve among minorities in impoverished school districts. After surveying many students on their reading habits, Champion noticed that there was a lack of desire to read among many of the minority students, neither was there an emphasis enforced by the parents to make their children read. Some students expressed to Champion they did not like reading because they could not find any books that were of interest to them and considered the books required for them to read in school boring. In addition, they found more entertainment in playing video games or watching television than reading. After hearing this, Champion redirected his focus full time to writing, with the intentions to create fiction books that appeal to urban communities and grab the attention of those influenced by pop culture and hip-hop.