Julius Lester

Ekundayo, a Dogon spirit brought to America from Africa, inhabits the body of a young African American slave on a Virginia plantation, where he experiences loss, sorrow, and reconciliation in the months preceding the Civil War.

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

No one on the plantation had ever heard the Old African’s voice, yet he had spoken to all of them in their minds. For the Old African had the power to see the color of a person’s soul and read his thoughts as if they were words on a page. Now it was time to act—time to lead his fellow slaves to the Water-That-Stretched-Forever, and from there back to Africa. Back to their home. Based on legend and infused with magical realism, this haunting tale is beautiful in both its language and its images. Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney have found a new, extraordinary way to express the horrors of slavery and the hope and strength that managed to overcome its grip.

In this masterpiece of historical fiction, award-winning novelist Julius Lester tells the story of Emma -- a slave of Pierce Butler and caretaker of his two daughters -- and Pierce, a man with a mounting gambling debt and household to protect. Emma wants to teach his daughters, one who opposes slavery and one who supports it, to have kind hearts. Meanwhile, in a desperate bid to survive, Pierce decides to cash in his "assets" and host the largest slave auction in American history. And on that day, the skies open up and weep endlessly on the proceedings below. Using multiple voices, ranging from those of slaves to free blacks, of slaveowners to abolitionists, Julius Lester has transformed a little-known event in American history into a heartbreaking and powerfully dramatic epic on slavery, and the struggle to affirm humanity in the midst of it. - Back cover.

Biography of the persecuted genius who helped create the modern computer.

In a small mountain village, a young girl named Shining is born. The villagers fear and shun her because she doesn't speak, but one day she will win the heart of her people. Newbery Honor author Julius Lester has created a powerful tale about the importance of remaining true to one's self and finding one's voice.

When people and animals try to climb ladders to Heaven to escape problems with snakes, God, His secretary Bruce, and the angel Shaniqua decide that Heaven needs to be much further away.

When Jenna and Jeremy's father shoots and kills their artist mother, they struggle to slowly rebuild a functioning family.

A collection of six original fables with morals both silly and serious.

Chaos results when a dream tells all the children and animals of the world that they should do whatever they want without fear of adult reprisal.

"Rebecca Nachman is a rabbi without a synagogue. Having resigned from her dwindling congregation, she now works as a college counselor at a small Vermont college advising students about private matters and offering the "Jewish perspective" on issues raised at faculty dinner parties." "Lonely and on the edge of losing her faith, she comes into possession of a Torah, the last relic of Czechowa, a village of Polish Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis. With the Torah, the unquiet spirits of the village dead begin to visit Rebecca. On one visit they leave a manuscript written in Hebrew and titled My Life, an autobiography by God, who, like any eager author, is seeking a sympathetic reader. No one has ever finished reading the manuscript, including Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Maimonides, and Augustine. God thinks Rebecca will." "Rebecca's life is further complicated when one of her advisees - a troubled young woman who seemed on the verge of confessing something - is murdered. As the college struggles to comprehend the tragedy and a police investigation is launched, Rebecca begins reading the manuscript, and so comes to confront the central challenge to her faith in His most troubling and unlikely incarnation."--BOOK JACKET.

Discovering that making a world takes a lot of work, God calls on his secretary Bruce and the angel Shaniqua to help him create bushes, grass, flowers, and butterflies.

“This book is astonishing, daring, compelling, and confirms Lester’s preeminence among storytellers.”--Jane Yolen If we weren’t there, how can we really know how the world began? Could it be that God even made a mistake or two when creating the world? Using Jewish legend and his own translations from the Book of Genesis, master storyteller Julius Lester has created a collection of Bible stories like no other. Written especially for readers who might not make their way to the stories of the Bible otherwise, these tales are a welcome opening to a glorious world that will touch the spirit of all readers--no matter what religion guides them.

A collection of short stories accompanied by short essays on censorship by twelve authors whose works have been challenged in the past.

Presents the author's meditations on twenty paintings by artist Rod Brown, designed to encourage reflection on the hardships faced by African-American slaves until their emancipation.