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Bio Jevon E. Thompson
Morristown NJ native, Jevon E. Thompson earned his B.A. in Psychology, with minor focuses on music and communications, from Milton WI. In the 1970's as a drummer, he did an apprenticeship with the Duke Ellington Band. While drumming with Chicago Bluesman and Handy Award winner Luther Allison, he played with many other artists such as Marvin Gaye, Bonnie Raitt, and Freddy King.
Jevon spent four years in Hawaii during which time he played with many headliners who came to the islands, worked as a commercial fisherman and taught sixth, seventh, and eight grade English.
Jevon Thompson is an internationally known motivational speaker. Acknowledged by the Regan White House and youth organizations throughout the United States, Canada, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
In the 1980's, he made guest appearances on ABCs "All My Children," and an WLS-TV Oprah Winfrey special with Michael Jordan produced by Charlotte Kopp. His educational videos included “Waking Up From Dope,” “Parents Are the Answer,” “Say No Elementary,” and “Love Your Liver!”
Jevon’s first novel, "Crutches,” was selected as a 2014 "Honorable Mention" award winner for Urban Fiction for the Peoples Favorite Book Awards. A 1957 period piece, “Crutches” is the story of a black middle class family struggling to stay together. Vivian and her two sons, Robin and Little Von, move to the Frederick Douglass projects for a new start in life. However, their new start turns into a struggle for survival for which they were not prepared.
Jevon's second novel "The War Of Heaven and Earth," is the story of two powerful volunteer angels who are born into black families. They grow up and began to follow their missions to aid Earth’s humanity escape the plight planned for them by the dark fallen angels Baal and his minions from the House of Baalinia.
Other co-author writings include New York Times bestseller “Chicken Soup For the College Soul,” and “Teen Power Too!”
Reviewed by Bil Howard for Readers' Favorite
When things get tough, we all look for something or someone to lean on; some turn to booze, drugs or money while others discover that family and friends are best to hold them up. Jevon E. Thompson tells the story of a family struggling to stay together and lean on each other in Crutches. Ashamed of herself and knowing that she can do better, Vivian decides to take her two children and move out of her parents’ house. If she is going to be able to fight booze, she’s going to have to make up her mind to do it on her own. Robin and Little Von, her two sons, are not particularly trusting of their mother’s ability to stay sober, and therefore have battles of their own to fight as they try to adjust to life in “the projects.” As 5-year-old Little Von looks at the scary world around him, he learns to lean on his older brother Robin. Robin has the typical struggles of a high school teen to face, but with the added pressure of having to take care of his little brother while their mother struggles to straighten out her life. As each work their way through their own personal battles, will they be able to come together and find strength or fall prey to the harsh living of the projects.
Crutches is a novel that is full of both triumph and tragedy. Jevon E. Thompson expertly weaves and intertwines the lives of this struggling family into a tangled web of conflict which is nearly impossible to survive. All too true of Afro-American culture in general and especially in 1957, the gripping truth of this story is very real. Thompson does an excellent job of contrasting different lives around Vivian, Robin and Little Von as a measuring stick against which the reader can see their progress and understand the pressures that are in constant motion around them. Every individual and every family has their struggles, but those who survive and become stronger have learned to lean upon those things which support them rather than continue to pull them down. You won’t have dry eyes while reading Crutches if you truly understand the depth of despair to which this family is plunged and the height of victory they achieve. Tragic, inspiring and honest!
