Unlocking History, Inspiring Healing.
New Middle-Grade Novel 'Glow Power' Explores Greenwood History, Healing for Young Readers.
Key Points
The story features a Cardinal Avatar transformation for Jake after a glow and a wish, enabling him to travel through a time-traveling tunnel.
Abuelita, Jake's grandmother, gives Teyanna the microphone and imagery in the text suggests that young minds glow like the sun, signaling empowerment and resilience.
The setting is Greenwood, Oklahoma, explicitly tied to the historic Black Wall Street and its connection to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
Columbus, Ohio is identified as the release’s home base for the press announcement.
Authors Jacqueline Lopez and Joy Peyton articulate that Glow Power aims to honor Greenwood’s memory while delivering a hopeful message for young readers.
Jay Books Press has announced a July 12, 2026 worldwide e-book release for *Glow Power: Unlocking Healing and Transformation*, a debut middle-grade novel aimed at readers aged 9 to 15. Financial Content reports the book is co-authored by Jacqueline Lopez and Joy Peyton, with illustrations by Cheyenne Lewis, and centers on the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma — known historically as Black Wall Street — during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
The announcement, made June 29, 2026, in Columbus, Ohio, comes just days after the Texas State Board of Education voted to rename the 1921 event from the "Tulsa Race Massacre" to the "Tulsa Race Riots" for 5.5 million public school students. The timing puts *Glow Power* at the center of a live national debate over how racial history reaches young readers.
Jake's Cardinal Avatar and the Time-Traveling Tunnel
The story follows Jake, a young protagonist who glows, makes a wish, and transforms into a Cardinal Avatar. That transformation sends him through a time-traveling tunnel into 1921 Greenwood. There he meets four young friends — Teyanna, Keishan, Empress, and Vi — who are living through the destruction of Black Wall Street. According to KOTA Radio, the dual-timeline format lets Jake witness and process the massacre through the lens of friendship and courage.
The Cardinal is the state bird of Ohio, where Jay Books Press is based. That detail adds local symbolism to Jake's transformation. Illustrator Cheyenne Lewis, a New York City-based artist with 12-plus years of experience, brings what KOTA Radio calls "emotionally resonant" visuals to the journey — giving young readers a visual guide through a painful chapter of American history.
Abuelita Plants Seeds of Resilience and Hope
Jake's grandmother, Abuelita, is the emotional anchor of the book. She gives Teyanna the microphone — a symbol of voice and power. The text uses the image of young minds glowing "like the sun" to signal that children carry the ability to heal and transform their communities. Co-author Jacqueline Lopez said she "wanted to write a story that honors the memory of Greenwood while giving young readers a message of hope."
Lopez and co-author Joy Peyton, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Linguistics, frame the book as a tool for empathy and racial equity. My Eagle Country reports the authors see *Glow Power* as a way to "illuminate hidden histories" — turning grief into a "healing glow" that children can carry forward. The press describes their mission as accelerating compassion through children's literature.
Black Wall Street's Story Lands Amid a Curriculum Battle
The June 2026 Texas decision affects 5.5 million students who will now learn about the 1921 event using softened language. Oklahoma and other states have also passed laws restricting lessons that cause students "discomfort or guilt" over racial history. Into that gap, *Glow Power* arrives as a resource for educators, librarians, and parents who want historical accuracy paired with an age-appropriate frame.
*Glow Power* joins a small but growing list of middle-grade books about the Tulsa Massacre, including *Greenwood Gone: Henry's Story* by Sioux Roslawski (2021). Early literary buzz is strong — reviewers at Pop! Goes The Reader listed it among the most anticipated middle-grade releases of Q3 2026. Jay Books Press is positioning itself as a leader in socially conscious children's publishing, a market that has grown steadily since 2020.
What Readers and Educators Can Expect on July 12
The e-book releases worldwide on July 12, 2026. The target audience is ages 9 to 15. Jay Books Press, an independent publisher based in Columbus, Ohio, says the book is designed to spark classroom and family discussions on empathy, racial equity, and hidden history. My Eagle Country notes the authors built the narrative so that tragedy is never the final word — hope and community transformation are.
Lopez and Peyton previously co-authored *Joaquin Moves From Fear to Love*, showing a pattern of books built around emotional healing for young readers. With *Glow Power*, they set the story in one of the most erased moments in American history and ask children to imagine what it means to glow in the dark — to carry light even after loss.
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