New Releases by Julius Lester

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!

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.

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

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.

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

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

A collection of thirty-five essays of Julius Lester.

The author retells the classic Afro-American tales.

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

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

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

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.

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