num_pages: 92
description: 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.
language: English
title: Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue
titlecomplete: Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue
genres: Childrens, African American, Teen, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Historical, Cultural, Fiction, Middle Grade
ratings_count: 4033
places: Georgia, Savannah, Georgia
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Vermont Golden Dome Book Award, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Coretta Scott King Book Award
category: Author, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: California Young Readers Medal
category: Middle School/Junior High
publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers