The four year old loved the stories of tricky Brer Rabbit. This mama had to do some editing, but not too much. The voice and language use is engaging and charming, especially the little asides directed to the reader. This is also wonderfully illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, and would be a great book to own, since the stories are short and can be returned to again and again. ( )

This story is a collection of 48 stories written by Julius Lester about a rabbit named Brer and his interactions with his fellow animals and humans. The story takes place in the pre-civil war era and can be a great way to introduce children to the folk literature of that time. ( )

loved reading this! ( )

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 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. ( )

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 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. ( )