Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue - Hardcover

Lester, Julius

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786804904 ISBN 13: 9780786804900

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2005

Synopsis

Since their mother Fanny left, Emma has taken care of the Butler children, Sarah and Frances. She wants to raise them to have good hearts, as a rift in morals has ripped the Butler household apart: Sarah and their mother oppose the inhumanity of slavery while Frances and their father Pierce believe in the Southern lifestyle and treatment of blacks. Now, to pay off mounting gambling debts, Pierce decides to cash in on his "assets" and host the biggest slave auction in American history, at the price of his humanity. During those two days in Georgia, the skies weep on the proceedings below, for although Butler promises Emma's parents not to sell her, money, desperation, and greed enable him to justify his any misdeed. Through flashbacks and flash-forwards, and shifting first-person points of view, readers will travel with Emma and others through time and place, and come to understand that every decision has its consequences, and final judgment is passed down not by man, but by his maker. Julius Lester is a master of storytelling and transforms this little known piece of American history into one of the most dramatic and impressive works of his brilliant career.

About this title

About the Author:

Julius Lester turned to writing after spending time as a photographer, musician, and political activist in the 1960s. His more than forty books for adults and children have garnered many awards, including ALA Notable citations and a Coretta Scott King Honor. To Be a Slave was a Newbery Honor Book, and John Henry received a Boston Globe-Horn Book award and a Caldecott Honor.

From AudioFile:

Transported to the largest slave auction in U.S. history, listeners feel the anguish of riven families, the greed of buyers and sellers. Lester's novel is a "paradigm for the thousands of slave auctions." Written like a play, the work has each reader, with well-honed accents, tell his or her role in the 1859 auction in which Pierce Butler sold his inheritance of 429 slaves, once considered family, in two days to cover gambling debts. A narrator grimly lists the sale records. Interludes offer reflections from years later by Butler, his daughters, and his abolitionist ex-wife, as well as several slaves who escaped via the Underground Railroad. Rain falls in torrents throughout the sale; a slave comments, "This ain't rain, this is God's tears." D.P.D. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0786804904
• ISBN 13: 9780786804900
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 92