The Reception

"I have been very amused to note the different receptions accorded my own books for young readers, To Be a Slave and Black Folktales. The former received a fantastic reception. The latter, while being well-reviewed, has not been reviewed nearly as extensively and will definitely not be getting any prizes. And the reason to me is clear. The latter is directed totally toward black children.... it's just that one [of the two books] is more easily accessible to whites than the other. Whites have to open themselves a little more to dig Black Folktales. They have to make an effort. In other words, they have to meet me on my ground, and that is what whites have always been loath to do where black are concerned. I'm making the rules now and changing the game a little. So they want to pick up their marbles and go home." ~ Julius Lester, in a letter, 1970 (Children's Literature Review Vol. 41)

As Julius Lester accurately supposed, Black Folktales did not go on to win any awards. Reviews of the text were often lackluster: while no insults or derision were found directed toward the book, praise of the same was lukewarm, passing and/or frequently non-committal. One citation in the The New York Times stated that Lester's was "a strong contemporary voice"; another by John A. Williams deemed the collection "too short." Kirkus Reviews published that Lester's writings formed "a black powerhouse" and that one of the stories, "Stagolee," was "shot through with revulsion and contempt of whites." Cleveland, Ohio's weekly African American newspaper, Call and Post, called the collection "delightful." The Saturday Review said "The language is a vigorous combination of the traditional and the contemporary, the humor vibrant, the style fluent and rolling." It seems that the control of word limits stifled many reviewers and the 21st century researcher is hard-pressed to find any long-form commentary on the book.The Los Angeles Times' writer Ivan Webster, however, provided slightly more depth of analysis while revealing some of the political and polarizing sentiments Lester's tone conjured in multiple works including Black Folktales: "More and more it begins to look like Julius Lester is moving into a unique position on the black writing scene. His voice has emerged over the past couple of years in the midst of an internal black struggle that seems to grow more and more discordant all the time. Blacks want to determine how to end white oppression, but with or without white allies?" Despite this elusive nod to the racial controversies of the age, Webster later wrote in the same review that Lester was a "sure and unpretentious writer" whose "contemporaneity...has a beautifully sardonic accuracy."

Sources

All sources are listed in the chart above.