January 29, 2018
Sadly, Julius Lester, folklorist, writer, photographer and professor extraordinaire passed away recently. I first learned about him through his wonderfully modern retellings of the Brer Rabbit stories. In the near future I will read Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby ( one of my favorites), and Julius Lester certainly deserves to be spotlighted as one of the important “teachers” of our time. Today I want to share his straightforward and uplifting exploration of race and identity. I read this to 5-10 year olds and I would be interested in hearing from people about their thoughts about the book and their experiences reading it to children.