When Dad Killed Mom

Julius Lester

Feb 2013 · Recorded Books · Narrated by Carine Montbertrand and Jeff Woodman

About this audiobook

Siblings Jenna and Jeremy have known for a long time that their parents don't get along. They find out just how bad it is when they are pulled out of class and told their father just shot and killed their mother. Jenna was always her father's favorite, while Jeremy was his mother's. Now a painful silence has fallen between them. They have trouble agreeing on just about everything at a time when they need each other more than ever. Where are they going to live? Who is going to take care of them? Can they have a relationship with their imprisoned father? Author Julius Lester handles difficult topics with grace and sensitivity. His To Be a Slave was a Newbery Honor Book and a New York Times Book of the Year. Uncompromisingly honest, When Dad Killed Mom is sometimes painful, and perhaps Lester's most moving novel. The emotional depth is enhanced by a skilled dual narration.

Ratings and reviews

This is a huge little book that crams a ton of provocative discussion material into a compelling story. It's genre is Youth Fiction but it plays very well to adults. I urge everyone to read it, and to read it thoughtfully. If you have children, read it with them and be open to any and all questions and comments they may make. Dr. Lester personally defended this book when it was banned. It's worth every minute of your time.

About the author

Julius Bernard Lester was born in St. Louis, Missouri on January 27, 1939. He received a bachelor's degree in English from Fisk University in 1960. He moved to New York to become a folk singer. He performed on the coffeehouse circuit as a singer and guitarist. He released two albums entitled Julius Lester in 1965 and Departures in 1967. His first published book, The Folksinger's Guide to the 12-String Guitar as Played by Leadbelly written with Pete Seeger, was published in 1965. In the 1960s, Lester was closely involved as a writer and photographer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He traveled to the South to document the civil rights movement and to North Vietnam to photograph the effects of American bombardment. He also hosted radio and television talk shows in New York City. He wrote more than four dozen nonfiction and fiction books for adults and children. His books for adults included Look Out, Whitey!: Black Power's Gon' Get Your Mama, Revolutionary Notes, All Is Well, Lovesong: Becoming a Jew, and The Autobiography of God. His children's books included To Be a Slave, Sam and the Tigers, and Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue, which won the American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Award in 2006. He also wrote reviews and essays for numerous publications including The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, The Village Voice, Dissent, The New Republic, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. After teaching for two years at the New School for Social Research in New York, Lester joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1971. He originally taught in the Afro-American studies department, but transferred to the Judaic and Near Eastern studies department when Lester criticized the novelist James Baldwin for what he felt were anti-Semitic remarks. He died from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on January 18, 2018 at the age of 78.