Julius Lester is a celebrated author whose accolades include
a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award. He is also a
National Book Award finalist, a National Book Critics Circle
nominee, and a recipient of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. In
addition to his critically acclaimed writing career, Mr. Lester has
distinguished himself as a civil rights activist, musician,
photographer, radio talk-show host, and professor. For 32 years he
taught at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He lives in
western Massachusetts.
Jerry Pinkney is one of America's most admired children's
book illustrators. He has won the Caldecott Medal and five
Caldecott Honors, five Coretta Scott King Awards, five New York
Times Ten Best Illustrated Awards, the Coretta Scott King-Virginia
Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Laura Ingalls Wilder
Award, and the Society of Illustrators' Original Art Show Lifetime
Achievement Award, and many other prizes and honors. Recently a
member of the National Council of the Arts and inducted into the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has also served on the
U.S. Postal Service Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee. His artwork
has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the country,
including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of
Art, the Schomburg Center, and the Norman Rockwell Museum. Jerry
Pinkney lives with his wife, author Gloria Jean Pinkney, in
Westchester County, New York.
Lester juxtaposes a contemporary voice and settings (like shopping malls) with some dialect in these "wonderfully funny folktales," said PW. "For many purists, though, it will not replace the original stories." Ages 8-up. (Jan.)
Gr 2 Up Recent retellings of Joel Chandler Harris' African-American folktales from former slaves have pruned the dialect and leave out Uncle Remus all together. Most notable of these is Jump!: the Adventures of Brer Rabbit (HBJ, 1986). This newest attempt brings together two distinguished children's book creators in a most unusual recreation. Lester has retold 48 of the folktales in standard English but with a strong feel for the dialect of the original stories. His retellings are as lively as the originals but they also have a liveliness of their own, as he incorporates modern allusions which never seem out of place. Even more importantly, he uses the sharp, witty Uncle Remus who narrated the original folktales, and not the more servile character from the opening and closing segments who many found offensive. Pinkney's illustrations are mostly black-and-white sketches with some full-color double-page spreads. They do not have the sass of the original A. B. Frost illustrations, but they are filled with strong interest and a great humor which serves the text well. This will be of great interest to school and public libraries as well as to storytellers as a source which gives new life to an American classic. Kay McPherson, Central Atlanta-Fulton Public Library
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