Most Popular Books by Julius Lester

Delightfully funny animal stories and beautifully detailed paintings certain to captivate children.

A Newbery Honor Book What was it like to be a slave? Listen to the words and learn about the lives of countless slaves and ex-slaves, telling about their forced journey from Africa to the United States, their work in the fields and houses of their owners, and their passion for freedom. You will never look at life the same way again. "The dehumanizing aspects of slavery are made abundantly clear, but a testament to the human spirit of those who endured or survived this experience is exalted."—Children''s Literature

The author introduces the concept of race as only one component in an individual''s or nation''s "story".

A modern retelling with contemporary references to 12 African and African American folktales.

Julius Lester was born the son of a black Methodist minister in the south. His book Lovesong is a beautifully written account of his spiritual journey away from the conventions of his Southern heritage and Methodist upbringing, culminating in his personal self-discovery through a conversion to Judaism. Growing up in the turbulent civil rights era South, Lester was often discouraged by the disconnectedness between the promises of religion and the realities of his life. He used the outlets available to him to try to come to grips with this split and somehow reconcile the injustices he was witnessing with the purity of religion. He became a controversial writer and commentator, siding with neither blacks nor whites in his unconventional viewpoints. He became a luminal figure of the times, outside of the conventional labels of race, religion, politics, or philosophy. Lester’s spiritual quest would take him through the existential landscape of his Southern, Christian upbringing, into his ancestry, winding through some of the holiest places on the planet and into the spiritual depths of the world’s major religious cultures. His odyssey of faith would unexpectedly lead him to discovering Judaism as his true spiritual calling.

In a gray fieldstone house in Nashville, Tennessee, the Reverend Joshua Smith Sr.--the staunch and gentle man known to thousands in black churches throughout the South as the Singing Evangelist and to one white reporter as "the Colored Billy Graham"--is trying to compose his own obituary on what will be the last day of his life. In doing so, he looks back over that life--from his childhood in rural northern Mississippi to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, from tears of humiliation to songs of celebration and triumph. When Do Lord Remember Me was first published in 1984, the Chicago Sun-Times compared it to Alex Haley''s Roots, Newsday described it as "exquisitely crafted," People as "distinguished," the Philadelphia Inquirer as "riveting," and the Cleveland Plain-Dealer declared "every page has something worth remembering." Thirty years later and now a classic, Julius Lester''s Do Lord Remember Me is an eloquent and deeply moving story about a black family''s dignified struggle for survival.

Two short stories and one novella (all based on true stories) about love in the time of slavery. The first is about Ras, who helps other slaves escape, and ultimately escapes with his girlfriend, Sally. The second is about Maria, whose husband (a free black man) buys her but neglects to officially set her free; when he dies, she finds herself a slave again because her husband had debts and so she becomes the payment. The third is about William and Ellen Craft, a famous slave couple who escaped by pretending that Ellen (with her very light skin) was a white woman being escorted north by her slave; they went on to speak against slavery form the home base of Boston.

A young girl who has not uttered a sound since birth is shunned by the people in her village, until they realize how special she is.

Meet Rambler, a runaway slave roaming the countryside with a guitar, who knows the only way to stay free is to keep moving. Louis is another runaway, fleeing the plantation where he was raised, because he is about to be sold. And Jake and Mandy''s marriage is damaged by slavery''and destroyed by freedom. Here is the African-American experience, brought alive by a master storyteller.''Lester has an eye for capturing the essence of a human experience.''AHis work? boldly proclaims the heritage of African-Americans.'' ? The New York Times Book Review

Nothing can stop John Henry-no boulder, no mountain, and definitely no steam drill. Newbery Honor winner Julius Lester writes with such power that this African-American folk hero becomes as awesome as a natural phenomenon. Jerry Pinkney received a Caldecott Honor for his exuberant, glowing watercolor paintings of the hero. The book, celebrating its tenth year in print, was also a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner, a Parents magazine Best Book, and an ALA Notable Book, among other honors.

When John Calvin Marshall graduated from Harvard in 1956, he was prepared for a life of teaching and relative tranquility. But history had another plan for him: here, a veteran author re-envisions the Martin Luther King Jr. story in fearful, exciting, and violent terms. Political and provocative, And All Our Wounds Forgiven is both a compelling political fable and a striking and tender love story about one of this century’s most charismatic black leaders and the two women he loved.

From the author of "Lovesong: Becoming a Jew" comes this provocative new novel that asks the question: If God exists, then how could he allow the Holocaust to happen?

Cupid, the spoiled and mischievous god of love, is attracted to and marries the beautiful mortal, Psyche, and both learn many lessons about the nature of love.

The classic tales of Brer Rabbitt with a contemporary twist, by the award winning author Julius Lester and illustrated by award-winning Jerry Pinkney! Whether he is besting Brer Fox or sneaking into Mr. Man''s garden, Brer Rabbit is always teaching a valuable lesson. These classic tales are full of wit, humor, and creativity, and Julius Lester brings an added contemporary sense to these forty-eight timeless stories. "Lester juxtaposes a contemporary voice and settings (like shopping malls) with some dialect in these "wonderfully funny folktales,"--Publisher''s Weekly

A boy sent by an African god to tend the spirits of the dead struggles to fulfill his duty from within the bonds of slavery in Time''s Memory, by National Book Award finalist Julius Lester. Amma is the creator god, the master of life and death, and he is worried. His people have always known how to take care of the spirits of the dead – the nyama – so that they don''t become destructive forces among the living. But amid the chaos of the African slave trade and the brutality of American slavery, too many of his people are dying and their souls are being ignored in this new land. Amma sends a young man, Ekundayo, to a plantation in Virginia where he becomes a slave on the eve of the Civil War. Amma hopes that Ekundayo will be able to find a way to bring peace to the nyama before it is too late. But Ekundayo can see only sorrow in this land – sorrow in the ownership of people, in the slaves who have been separated from their children and spouses, in the restless spirits of the dead, and in his own forbidden relationship with his master''s daughter. How Ekundayo finds a way to bring peace to both the dead and the living makes this an unforgettable journey into the slave experience and Newbury Honor author Julius Lester''s most powerful work to date. Time''s Memory is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children''s Book of the Year.

Poems and photographs dealing with the themes of love, identity, city and country life, and childhood.

Through flashbacks, foreshadowing, and shifting first-person points of view, readers will travel with Emma and others through time and space. They come to discover that every decision has its consequences, and final judgment is passed down not by man, but by his maker.

There are times when a tree can no longer withstand the pain inflicted on it, and the wind will take pity on that tree and topple it over in a mighty storm. All the other trees who witnessed the evil look down upon the fallen tree with envy. They pray for the day when a wind will end their suffering. I pray for the day when God will end mine. In a time and place without moral conscience, fourteen-year-old Ansel knows what is right and what is true. But it is dangerous to choose honesty, and so he chooses silence. Now an innocent man is dead, and Ansel feels the burden of his decision. He must also bear the pain of losing a friend, his family, and the love of a lifetime. Coretta Scott King Award winner and Newbery Honoree Julius Lester delivers a haunting and poignant novel about what happens when one group of people takes away the humanity of another.

FROM SLAVE SHIP TO FREEDOM ROAD presents a series of magnificent paintings created by artist Rod Brown, portraying the story of slavery from its beginnings on the infamous ships of the Middle Passage to the enslaved Africans'' and their descendants'' centuries of subjugation and their final hard-won freedom. This gifted artist has vividly expressed both the horror of the slaves'' experience and the hope and spirit of resistance that sustained the survivors. Acclaimed author Julius Lester''s impassioned meditations on the paintings challenge readers to imagine not only the pain and grief, but also the triumph of the slaves: a terrifying voyage in chains and darkness; the humiliating auctions that separated families; the belief in deliverance; the joy and uncertainties of freedom. Together, Mr. Brown and Mr. Lester invoke the memory of their ancestors and provide a stirring testimony to their strength and endurance.

YA. Set in 1956 in Nashville, Tennessee. Tells of a young black boy and white girl who become interested in each other and of the helplessness of the situation, in the face of adult hostility.

Whether he is besting Brer Fox or sneaking into Mr. Man''s garden, Brer Rabbit is always teaching a valuable lesson. These classic tales are full of wit, humor, and creativity, and Julius Lester brings an added contemporary sense to these forty-eight timeless stories.

A fictionalized account of the Biblical tale in which a Hebrew infant, rescued by the daughter of the Pharaoh, passes through a turbulent adolescence to eventually become a prophet of his people while his sister finds her true self as a priestess to the Egyptian gods.

In this disturbing novel, a college psychologist kills his wife and no one knows why. Sister and brother, Jenna and Jeremy, tell the story in alternating chapters.--Booklist