Genre:  Animal / African American / Trickery / Contraptions

Year Published: 1990

Year Read:  1993

Publisher: Rabbit Ears Books

This is a Grammy-award nominated story that is masterfully done by the folks at Rabbit Ears. Danny Glover's raspy yet calming narration and Taj Mahal's solo guitar music helps complements the story of those two tricksters, Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox.

Danny Glover does a great job at narrating this story as he provides inflections throughout the story such as going deep when he does Brer Fox and going high-pitched when he does Brer Rabbit. Danny Glover's narration is calm and energetic and makes this story great to listen to on the ears. Taj Mahal's solo guitar music is excellent as the music greatly matches the story's calm mood and southern roots.

Although, I found nothing inappropriate about this story, I felt that Henrik Drescher's illustrations were a little awkward for this story. Since, the mood of the story is calm and sweet, Henrik Drescher's illustrations are a bit wild and blunt and the illustrations usually take the attention away from the main story. I did not like how the contraption came to be as it looks like a black jug that has wobbly legs attached to it instead of an actual person, which is normally seen in the other versions of this story.

Overall, this is a great story that fans of the Brer Rabbit would greatly appreciate. Both Danny Glover and Taj Mahal make a great team at providing the southern theme for this story. However, the illustrations may need to be improved to match the mood of the story.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre:  Animals / Folktale / African American / Trickery

Year Published: 1992

Year Read:  1994

Publisher: Rabbit Ears Books

Brer Rabbit has remained to be one the most popular folktales in American history. Of all the stories about Brer Rabbit’s escapades that I have heard, “Brer Rabbit and Boss Lion” remains to be one of my most favorite escapades of Brer Rabbit. Rabbit Ears’ version of how Brer Rabbit outsmarts Boss Lion is probably one of the most memorable versions since Danny Glover’s narration and Dr. John’s music greatly enhance this story.

Danny Glover’s narration is a hoot as he energetically tells the story of how Brer Rabbit outsmarted the big, bad lion. His voice goes from high-pitch as he voices Brer Rabbit and Brer Pig, to a deeply threatening tone when he voices Boss Lion. My favorite part of Danny Glover’s narration was when he voices Brer Pig’s discomfort about feeding Boss Lion by sounding so high-pitched and whiny that it makes this situation funny, even though the audience knows he is going to be eaten. Dr. John’s gritty blues music greatly matches with the chaotic tone of the story as the folks of Brer Village struggled to deal with Boss Lion. Dr. John uses somewhat chilling saxophone music to perform the intense scenes with Boss Lion. Bill Mayer’s illustrations are pure genius as it is both humorous and intense at the same time. His images of Boss Lion are beautifully detailed as Boss Lion is seen with pimples all across his face and his excessive drooling and sharp teeth greatly emphasizes the ugliness of Boss Lion. Also, the image of Brer Rabbit is greatly appreciated as he wears blue jean overalls to portray his tough exterior.

Parents should know that the image of Boss Lion may scare younger children, as I described in the pros section. Also, even though this story is great, it has many dark themes such as Boss Lion eating up the folks of Brer Village and threatening to eat Brer Rabbit a great number of times. But, that is not as bad as certain movies where the main protagonist would usually get killed during the movie and Brer Rabbit does make it out of this situation alive. However, I do feel sorry for the other folks of Brer Village, such as, Brer Pig and Brer Goose, getting eaten by the vicious Boss Lion.

“Brer Rabbit and Boss Lion” is a great video for everyone because of its occasional dark humor, such as, Boss Lion eating Brer Pig before he used the milkshake Brer Pig brought him for shampoo. [Also, families would enjoy the way that Brer Rabbit outsmarted Boss Lion in his own game and came back to the village as a hero.This video / book is an instant treat for both children and adults, but parents may want to make sure that their children can handle the intense scenes of Boss Lion.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

I guess jumping over to a random Enid Blyton book after reading a very heavy book on the Vietnam War doesn't necessarily relax you, particularly if you find the book that you have jumped over to to be complete and utter rubbish. What I have learnt from this experience is that a book that is almost painful to read can be just as hard as a book that confronts you with the horrors of life. In fact I found this book to be so painful that I actually had to put it down for a day before I went back to finishing it. Okay, you may ask, why didn't I simply abandon it? Well, I guess because I really don't like abandoning books, even though I have done so in the past.

This book is a collection of short stories about a group of animals. We have Brer Rabbit, Brer Terrapin (a fresh water turtle), Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, and Brer Bear (I have no idea what this whole brer rubbish is, and that was one of the things that I found really painful to read, as well as the writing style). Anyway Brer Rabbit is a very mischievous and naughty creature that pretty much goes around playing tricks on people and getting away with it. In particular he loves going around and teasing Brer Fox, and most of the book is about how Brer Rabbit is always getting one up on Brer Fox.

Now, what I really and truly hated about this book was simply that Brer Rabbit is not the type of character that I would want anybody to model themselves after. He is deceitful, disrespectful, mischievous, and simply a pain in the butt. He is the type of character that really exists only to make other people's lives a misery. He gets his thrills out of playing tricks and jokes on people, making them incredibly angry, and getting away with it. Not only would I classify him as an antagonist, but he always gets away with his actions. To put it simply, not only is there no justice in the book, and you are supposed to sympathise with this horrible little rabbit.

The only redeeming feature about this book was the story about how Mr Lion went to a restaurant to have some soup, and then said he couldn't eat it. The entire story had the staff running around trying to figure out what was wrong with the soup and why Mr Lion could not eat it. In the end you find out that it was because he didn't have a spoon. A joke, but a joke that one would consider to be groan worthy at best.