Elgin father, 9-year-old son self-publish books

Writing is a family affair for Reggie Kee and his 9-year-old son, Josiah, who are having a joint book release party Saturday in Elgin.

Reggie Kee, who publishes under the pen name "Reggie Legend," wrote his second book, about hip-hop in the context of God as the foundation for all music; Josiah wrote his first book, a children's tale about the adventures of a kid named Johnny. Both are self-published.

The two projects happened to come about at the same time, they said.

Josiah, who's going into the fourth grade at Country Trails Elementary in Elgin, said his book "Chronicles of an Uncommon Kid" is a compilation of four mini-books he wrote for class.

"I thought it was so cool, because I never thought that the books all my classmates loved would be published," he said.

Reggie Kee's book, "Defacing the Music: What Slips into the Grooves Once God Gets Removed," is in free-form prose and addresses the theme of hip-hop "restoration."

"The art form is something I love, but the way it's being used, and the way it's being promoted and the way it's being accepted - it's detrimental to us," he said. He's turned to Christian rap, or "holy hip-hop," a genre that has much improved in recent years, he said.

His first book, "Steel Waters: Volume I: Duplicate Authenticity," is a collection of poems self-published in 2010 that explore the influence of hip-hop and scripture in his life. At the last count in 2013, he'd published about 400 copies, he said.

Reggie and his wife, Quiana, are licensed ministers and teach at their church, The Kingdom Advancement Center, 378 Division St. The book launch occurs there at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Quiana works as a program manager in the corporate world; Reggie is a motivational speaker whose resume includes events for Elgin Area School District U-46.

Josiah and his younger sister Maiyah, 6, started reading at a young age, and they come home with armloads of books from trips to the library, their father said.

Josiah said he loves mysteries and was inspired by the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series.

Johnny, Josiah's main character, is not as quiet as he is, and sometimes gets in trouble, but he's a good kid, Josiah said. "People will say mean things and he doesn't correct them," he said. "He sees the best in them."

Reggie said he did minimal editing on his son's book, such as by rephrasing words like "jerk" and concepts like "that's stupid."

So how did Josiah react to the editing? "At first I was pretty disappointed, but I got a little better about it," Josiah said.

Father and son said they plan to continue writing. Josiah said he's already finished his fifth mini-book and is thinking about his sixth, both with Johnny as the main character.

And little Maiyah isn't far behind, already having written four books of illustrations, including one about her beloved fidgets.