René Bull (1872–1942)

This book is based on a book called Uncle Remus: His Songs and his Sayings, which was based on tales passed on by enslaved African-Americans. Its stories are very similar to fables in that they are about personified animals who trick each other constantly, but none of these tales have explicit morals at their conclusions. As the book's introduction states, "These stories do not focus at all on the triumph of good over evil or on the need for punishment: they are African folklore, not show more European myth or legend. The stories deal with tricks for the sake of trickery, with outsmarting the other fellow..." (p. 5).

My favorite story, which my dad read to me when I was younger, is "The Wonderful Tar Baby Story", which is about Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit, who are always tricking each other. In this story, Brer Fox wants to get even with Brer Rabbit, so he sets the Tar Baby out on the road and waits for Brer Rabbit to come along. He watches and laughs while Brer Rabbit gets frustrated that the Tar Baby is not responding to his friendly chatter, and hits and kicks the Tar Baby until all of his limbs and finally his head are stuck in the tar.

This is a great treasury of folklore which could be used in multiple ways in the classroom - in a unit on folklore, in a unit on slavery, in a unit on storytelling and oral tradition, or even in a simple lesson about personification. This collection could also be used to teach students about the differences between European folklore and fables and African folklore and fables. show less

Harris wrote a series of books retelling the stories from the African-American oral tradition, althougn most people are only familiar now with the excerpts from the animated film "Song of the Disney animated South."
The trickster Br'er Rabbit is forever ousting his enemies Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear (somewhat similar to the Roadrunner and Coyote of later cartoons) in sly and humorously inventive ways.

I would give it a hundred, if there were 100 stars. It's a really good book. It's really funny. The picture on the cover shows one of the pictures in the time when Brer Rabbit tricked Brer Cow and got her horns stuck in a tree so they could milk her. But, then the next day, Brer Cow chased Brer Rabbit for the rest of his life. I think he still thinks the trick was worth it, because they got a couple of bucket fulls of milk.

I really like his trickiness. This is my favorite Brer Rabbit book show more because it has lots of cool stories. show less

Rene Bull illustrated. Selection.