Julius
Lester began his career as a musician and political activist in
the 1960s before he turned to writing. In the past 30 years, he has
written more than 25 books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Among the
honors accorded his children's books are the Newbery Honor Medal for To
Be A Slave and, with Jerry Pinkney, the Caldecott Honor and the Boston
Globe-Horn Book Award for John Henry. He was also a National Book
Award finalist for Long Journey Home. His most recent picture books
are What a Truly Cool World, From Slave Ship to Freedom Road
and, also illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, Black Cowboy, Wild Horses:
A True Story. He is a distinguished professor of Near Eastern and Judaic
Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He says of his work,
"I write because the lives of all of us are stories. If enough of those
stories are told, then perhaps we will begin to see that our lives are
the same story. The differences are merely in the details."
2000
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