Best Selling Books by Julius Lester

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.

With his boisterous friends and rowdy enemies, Brer Rabbit is on the road to adventure. He gets a job and figures out how to get paid--twice a day! Times may change, but Brer Rabbit is forever! 32 illustrations, 8 in full color.

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.

Highlights the careers of Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Mahalia Jackson, Muddy Waters, Billie Holiday, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Little Richard, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin.

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

The Old African tells the story of his original capture into slavery, and then leads a group of slaves back to the homeland.

Retells the life of the legendary African American hero who raced against a steam drill to cut through a mountain.

The author retells the classic Afro-American tales.

From Introduction: "Huddie Ledbetter, nicknamed Leadbelly, died in December, 1949 at the age of 64. He had come out of the deep South, settled down in a little apartment on New York''s lower East Side, determined to build a successful career as a musician. Unfortunately, there was not much interest in folk music then. He got occasional jobs singing for schools and colleges, or at little parties where they were raising money for some cause like helping Loyalist Spain. Until the last three years of his life, he had barely recorded more than a few dozen songs. Today, through his recordings, he is world famous as one of the greatest singers of folksongs of this century. Songs he composed, or helped put together out of the fragments of older tunes, or adapted into the form in which we all know them now, have sold in the tens of millions: Good Night Irene, Bring Me A Little Water, Silvy, Midnight Special, Rock Island Line, Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (the tune), Old Cotton Fields At Home, and many others. The driving rhythms he developed on his unusual guitar, with its double strings, are unforgettable to anyone who ever heard them. Today, many young people wishing to learn his songs as he sang them, are trying to learn his style of guitar playing. This book is designed to help them, but it cannot be considered a substitute for listening to the recordings of Leadbelly....It must be remembered that more is involved than playing the correct notes and rhythm. When you listen to Leadbelly on record, you are listening to a man with many years of experience play an instrument. To achieve what he achieved is something which cannot be communicated in a book." - Julius Lester

A retelling of the classic Afro-American tales relating the adventures and misadventures of Brer Rabbit and his friends and enemies.

A husband does not believe it when his wife tells him that their crying baby is comforted by a huge eagle who flies down with its sharp talons and alights on the baby.

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.

There are ghosts in the cemetery near Malcolm David?s house, and they?re filling the air with their spooky OOOOOs and EEEEEs and ARRRRs. When Malcolm David dares to go looking for them late one night, he is surprised to discover that the eerie howling is actually coming from the ghosts? empty stomachs. They?re not trying to scare anybody? they?re just hungry, and they don?t know what it is that ghosts are supposed to eat! A satisfying read-aloud for Halloween or anytime, this book mixes playfulness and lyricism as only Newbery Honor?winning author Julius Lester could do it. His dynamic text is well matched by Geraldo Valério?s glowing, happy artwork.

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. By the award-winning author of How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have!

An illustrated collection of twelve folk tales, ten African and two Jewish.

"This is an important book. It tells the truth and tells it eloquently. It is gentle poetry and biting prose. I love this book. I love Julius Lester."--Maya Angelou

A retelling of the Afro-American tales about the adventures and misadventures of Brer Rabbit and his friends and enemies.

One of the most complex periods in American history is illuminated by the love stories of three couples and their fights for freedom from slavery.

A collection of essays introduce various facets of the struggle for radical change in American society, ranging from Women''s Liberation to the Yippies

A collection of thirty-five essays of Julius Lester.

Retells six tales from American black folk literature: "Why the waves have whitecaps," "Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear," "Why dogs hate cats," "The farmer and the snake," "What is trouble?" and "The knee-high man."

A prose retelling of Shakespeare''s play in which a jealous general is duped into thinking that his wife has been unfaithful, with tragic consequences.

A compilation, selected from various sources and arranged chronologically, of the reminiscences of slaves and exslaves about their experiences from the leaving of Africa through the Civil War and into the early twentieth century.