Advanced Children's Literature: Historical Fiction

Lester, Julius. DAY OF TEARS. New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, 2005.

There's never been a Julius Lester novel that I didn't enjoy and take much from, but DAY OF TEARS is a different type of slave narrative. With a subtitle of "a novel in dialog" it is marvelous listening, with many male and female narrators, but one can understand the point of the read-along after becoming familiar with this title. The book, like poetry, is made to be spoken. It is more a play than a novel, with a prinicipal characters list just like a playbill in the front of the book, but still and also (to use adolescent language) there are some things that may be more affecting and emotionally draining to see in print. The list of slaves at auction with their selling prices typed besides their names makes it all too real for me. The book drives home the point that must always be the main focal point with regard to slavery. It doesn't matter how well you are treated, slavery and freedom are two opposite ends of the spectrum. Pierce Butler treats his slaves like family until his "weak" wife leaves and the years of this youth become the gambling debts of his middle years. Daughter Frances is loved by Pierce much more than Sarah because she has a business head rather than a soft heart. Will and Mattie can't hide their grief or their disdain for Master Butler when he sells their daughter Emma. Never could anyone have convinced them that Emma being sold away was even a remote possibility. Will and Master grew up together, played in the dirt together, were treated like equals when they were young. Why do others not understand what Lester knows instinctively in his bones, that there is no good ending when slavery is involved. The emotional involvement with the reader is high for Lester and one wonders if retelling these painful tales is a burden or catharsis for him. The fact that the story is multigenerational adds richness and surprise. The interludes and flashbacks added to the drama, the suspense. I'm just a silly white girl but I so wish I could freeze time and let fictious Paris, of Nikki Grimes fame, and Emma shake the hand of Barack Obama, look into his kindly and learned face, gaze on his beautiful dark and self-sufficient wife and know the fact that in the end good almost always does defeat evil, but it is always a long, hard, lonely struggle. How can I praise Lester other than to say he has the skills of a time traveler, a fly on the wall. Even someone half human could not help being affected by this primal tale of love and hate, fear and deception, lucre versus love. There are not enough superlatives for this book, there truly are not. It would be an impossible choice between "Tears" and "The Old African" and I'm glad I don't have to make it. Pinkney's artwork is a plus, but the relationships in "Tears" are somehow unique. The time period is a bit different but the moral, the heartwrenching is not. The book will leave you breathless.