Walt Disney's Brer Rabbit and His Friends

by Joel Chandler Harris, Walt Disney Company

Brer Fox devises many clever tricks to keep Brer Rabbit out of his peanut patch

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Fiction

42 pages, Hardcover

First published March 12, 1974

About the author

Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist born in Eatonton, Georgia who wrote the Uncle Remus stories, including Uncle Remus; His Songs and His Sayings, The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation, (1880), Nights with Uncle Remus (1881 & 1882), Uncle Remus and His Friends (1892), and Uncle Remus and the Little Boy (1905).

The stories, based on the African-American oral storytelling tradition, were revolutionary in their use of dialect and in featuring a trickster hero called Br'er ("Brother") Rabbit, who uses his wits against adversity, though his efforts do not always succeed. The frog is the trickster character in traditional tales in Central and Southern Africa. The stories, which began appearing in the Atlanta Constitution in 1879, were popular among both Black and White readers in the North and South, not least because they presented an idealized view of race relations soon after the Civil War. The first published Brer Rabbit stories were written by President Theodore Roosevelt's uncle, Robert Roosevelt.

Reviews

[Gina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read mainly out of curiosity. It is interesting to me that they recognized problems with the tar-baby, changing it to a (white) glue baby, but that they still went a head with it. Ultimately, I don't like the characters that much anyway, but reading a little about Joel Chandler Harris, that makes a lot of sense.

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful and amazing classic story in the vein of Aesop and his fables. Everyone should read this at some point in their lives.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite of the classic cartoons but I wanted my son to be exposed to all of it at the risk of it just fading into the past. I'm bummed that he won't experience the original Splash Mountain ride but this will be as close as I can get him to seeing what it was about.

[Avel Rudenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stupendous Read! In this case "the rabbit is wilier than the fox". Be a fan of Brer rabbit, he is most successful in his endeavors. You learn a whole lot about real life scenarios and situations. It surely is a classic, never to be forgotten. If only books were so luscious nowadays, "boredom wouldn't exist"!

[Genevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be a seven but there was no 7.

[Miranda Pratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because it made me feel good . When l was little I used to beg my uncle to read this book to me. I really hope that you like this book too.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many childhood memories when I was learning how to read. Good illustrations and colouring.

[Rochelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my opinion, this loose adaptation of a pair of tales from the motion picture SONG OF THE SOUTH (published in 1973) pales in comparison to other picture books produced by the Walt Disney Company during the same time.

Volume #13 in the 'Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Reading' line falls well short of Disney's usually excellent standards. The sub-par illustrations and severely abridged text are two reasons why the work feels lazy - even for 1970's Disney.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tar baby becomes a glue baby in this version of the classic tale. And the origin of "but please don't throw me in that briar patch"!!!

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, all of the animals are idiots in this one. But it's pretty fun to see all the tricks and traps they spring on each other. Of course, I knew about the brier patch trick, in addition to the tar baby, but those are the only two I remember. I surely did not have these books as a child, but I know the stories.

Also, not a tar baby in this book. It's a glue rabbit. I didn't realize that had been changed.

[TJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of mine from childhood. I reread it to see if I still enjoyed it, and I did. I have always enjoyed how the Brer Rabbit used his smarts to get away from the bigger animals.

[Jaime · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this collection of tales from the south. It was fun.