Now living in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, he writes about what he knows — kids — and his first book was a reflection of his own life, which has been repeatedly affected by a series of family moves from country to country, state to state. He now travels around the country speaking to students, and he reaches out to students internationally by Skype. His mission, he said, is to let kids know they should set goals, take risks, and find their own identities.

Jake didn’t much like writing, he said in an interview, until he started putting down on paper how he was feeling about the changes in his own life. “It becomes another way to express yourself,” he said.

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During summers, his mother, Debra Marcionette, who runs the education website www.spellingclassroom.com had Jake and his sister writing every day, and that is how Jake produced the first “Just Jake.” It tells the story of a 12-year-old whose family moves from Florida to Maryland and who has to fit in and find his own identity at a new school. His mom published the book on her website, but Jake wanted it published in paper, so he looked up on the Internet how to get a book published, found a list of literary agents and began calling them. In short order he had an agent and Penguin bought the book.

Jake said that kids would learn to write much better if schools would allow them to pick their own topics — and let them write about their own lives.

“Writing gets a bad rap for kids,” he said. “When you go to school you have to usually write about history and stuff kids aren’t into it. But when you can write about what you love and what you are passionate about, it gives another dimension to it. You can be connected in a more spiritual way.”

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The idea of allowing children to write about themselves as a way to encourage the practice of writing runs counter to the philosophy of a co-author of the Common Core English Language Arts Standards, David Coleman, who is now the president of the College Board. In a now-famous 2011 speech at the New York State Education Building, Coleman criticized the first-person and personal essays that were commonly assigned in K-12 schools:

“Forgive me for saying this so bluntly, the only problem with . . . [that] writing is as you grow up in this world you realize people really don’t give a [expletive] about what you feel or what you think,” Coleman said, according to a recording. “What they instead care about is, can you make an argument with evidence, is there something verifiable behind what you’re saying or what you think or feel that you can demonstrate to me? It is rare in a working environment that someone says, ‘Johnson, I need a market analysis by Friday, but before that I need a compelling account of your childhood.’ ”

Jake’s philosophy is different. “If schools would let kids write about what interests them, they would learn to enjoy it. A lot of kids would be more into writing if they could do that,” he said.

He was born in Singapore, moved to Indonesia and then, when he was age 3, to Poughkeepsie, New York. Several years after that, they moved to Florida, then to Tennessee, back to Florida, then to two places in Maryland, and then went back and forth between that state and Florida a few times. Jake is now in 10th grade in Florida Virtual School, which, he said, allows him to move at his own pace through his studies and affords him a flexible schedule that gives him time to travel.

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English is his favorite class, he said. He is taking several Advanced Placement classes — AP Human Geography, AP U.S. History and AP English composition — and loves history, particularly the Revolutionary War period and the Great Depression. How the federal government created programs to get the country out of the Depression especially interests him, he said. If there is a subject “that doesn’t fascinate” him, he said, it would be math. “In English and social studies, you can have different answers, different perspectives.”

His first book came out in February 2014, and his life quickly changed when the book became a bestseller.

“I’ve been granted the opportunity to speak to other kids and I think I can do that more efficiently than a lot of other motivational speakers who are adults,” he said. “I’m a kid. I like having the opportunity to touch so many other kids and let them know you need to be passionate and you are never too young to succeed.

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“The overall message is letting kids know that I am no different from them,” he said. “I believe that to my core. The only difference is that I had a dream and went for it. Kids can do that and be way better than me. Letting kids know they are never too young to succeed. A lot of kids are afraid of the word ‘no’ and afraid of rejection. If kids could just understand that ‘no’ is a delayed ‘yes’. You have to take all the opportunities you can.”

He loves to listen and read the news, and is very interested in the presidential campaign. He is undecided, but likes what he hears from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, he said.

Jake loves to read, and especially enjoys biographies, recently having read one on Jon Stewart and Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. His favorite book is “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo.

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He plays lacrosse and basketball and enjoys movies, watches television (he misses “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” — both Comedy Central shows no longer on the air) and in his spare time, is working on extending his “Just Jake” series and working on a spinoff series using some of the characters in the newest book.