R.I.P Julius Lester

The great Julius Lester died yesterday, peacefully and surrounded by family.

I first met Julius in the mid-1990s in  rec.arts.books.children — an Internet space similar to Reddit where all manner of groups formed. Not long thereafter we both joined the child_lit discussion group and became online friends. Julius was the sage amongst us, willing to ponder, engage, and smooth ruffled feathers in an intelligent, elegant, and remarkable way. Those wise posts were lost with the end of child_lit, b...