Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Dial (1987), Edition: Twenty-fourth, 176 pages
Description
A retelling of the Afro-American tales about the adventures and misadventures of Brer Rabbit and his friends and enemies.
User reviews
LibraryThing member hartn
Though one of the best parts of these tales is the telling, they prove a standard for trickster tales. The zeal and pride and wrath and greed of the beasts that get the best of brer fox and brer bear leave them so caught up in their own need to look good and get revenge and a meal they can't see
A great complement to the trickster vein is Thomas King's A Coyote Columbus Story, which is able to bridge the historical with the contemporary in a magical tale that becomes much more tangible than the play of Brer Rabbit that may not offer much outside of the world of the briar patch and its surroundings.
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how they let themselves be fooled. Lester is the perfect narrator, with a fine collection of oral devices and some very clever ways to bring in the modern reader and the city to what must seem to some a foreign world. The stories delight even when very familiar. Although the illustrations did not captivate me, they seem to suit the story and are highly detailed. A great complement to the trickster vein is Thomas King's A Coyote Columbus Story, which is able to bridge the historical with the contemporary in a magical tale that becomes much more tangible than the play of Brer Rabbit that may not offer much outside of the world of the briar patch and its surroundings.
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LibraryThing member ander23
Some of my childhood favorites. Julius Lester some years ago took on the task of retelling the Uncle Remus tales in four separate books, all beautifully illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. These retold stories won awards for their masterful presentation of the well-loved tales first written down by Joel
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Chandler Harris over 100 years ago, arguably the largest collection of African-American folklore available. This book is a compilation of the four books. 4 stars. Show Less
LibraryThing member joshbush
These Brer Rabbit adventures are fun to read out loud. Not so fun if you're just sitting by yourself. I finally got through them when we took a long road trip and read out loud while we were driving. These were originally stories from an oral tradition of slaves, so no big surprise that reading
I had in my mind, much as the person who wrote the introduction described, that the tales would be of poor Brer Rabbit having to use his wit to get out of the trouble others unjustly brought down on him. But what the tales are really about are Brer Rabbit being an irresponsible jerk who stole things from all of his neighbors continually and never showed anyone any respect but himself, not even his own family. That is why he was in so much trouble. It was his own fault he was always in trouble, and the stories just glorified that kind of behavior as humorous and something to emulate as long as you can get out of the trouble you get into. There were no good morals to pull out of any of the stories unless you count an unmentioned theme of don't do anything like anyone in any of these stories.
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them out loud is the best way to get the story.I had in my mind, much as the person who wrote the introduction described, that the tales would be of poor Brer Rabbit having to use his wit to get out of the trouble others unjustly brought down on him. But what the tales are really about are Brer Rabbit being an irresponsible jerk who stole things from all of his neighbors continually and never showed anyone any respect but himself, not even his own family. That is why he was in so much trouble. It was his own fault he was always in trouble, and the stories just glorified that kind of behavior as humorous and something to emulate as long as you can get out of the trouble you get into. There were no good morals to pull out of any of the stories unless you count an unmentioned theme of don't do anything like anyone in any of these stories.
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Awards
Coretta Scott King Award (Honor — 1988)
CCBC Choices (1987)
Read Aloud Indiana Book Award (Intermediate — 1990)
Great Reads from Great Places (Georgia — 2002)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
176 p.; 9.32 inches
ISBN
080370271X / 9780803702714