The Favorite Uncle Remus [Hardcover]

Joel Chandler Harris (Author), A. B. Frost (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

This book brings together for the first time in one volume the best stories of Joel Chandler Harris.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Chosen with care from seven different books, this is a well-made collection, the more welcome because some of the stories have long been out of print." Horn Book

"Chosen with care from seven different books, this is a well-made collection, the more welcome because some of the stories have long been out of print." Horn Book Guide

About the Author

After the first book appeared in 1880, Joel Chandler Harris was deluged with letters from readers all over the country asking for more stories of Brer Rabbit and his friends--so for the remaining years of his life he collected and wrote them. Richard Chase, noted folklorist and author of Jack Tales and Grandfather Tales, compiled and edited the volume after Harris's death, and his occasional footnotes and word definitions contribute to our understanding of the dialect. Chase's belief in the importance of folktales and Harris's work is summed up in his foreword: "These tales grew up in the soil of our nation. They came from the soul of a people. They endure."

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (January 30, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395068002
• ISBN-13: 978-0395068007
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic & For Good Reason, October 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Favorite Uncle Remus (Hardcover)

I remember as a child sitting at my grandmother's lap and listening to her read me my father's worn copy of the Uncle Remus Tales and I fell in love with the way Brer Rabit outwits the stronger and faster forest animals: Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, and Brer Bear. I loved it so much that I majored in English emphasising in Southern Literature in general and Joel Chandler Harris (the book's author) specifically. A note of warning however, the dialect in this copy is that of the antebellum slave dialect and it takes a little getting used to. But all in all a great book, which is unfortuantely overlooked in our politcally correct era. Too bad!

81 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EBONICA CLASSICA !, October 5, 2000

By 

Scott D. Rocca (Gratz, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Favorite Uncle Remus (Hardcover)

My only exposure to Uncle Remus as a child came, sadly, from the cutsie cartoon by Disney. These are not light fairy stories of a zip-a-dee-doo-dah nature - they are paradigm stories that illuminate the human condition as seen through the clear eyes of a poor but wise old slave. You will not find self-esteem or political correctness here, but instead raw and ancient truth.

The real Uncle Remus of Mr. Harris was one of the most pleasant suprises of my adult intellectual life. These are timeless tales of the human condition that transcend any one place, people group or era. Some goes up, some goes down. Just one 'simmon more. When a big man like me wants a chaw terbacker whar he qwine to spit? Fate, greed, pride. These are themes worthy of a toddler's bedtime story, yet fit for the mature reader to ponder over a glass of beer. I read the three little pigs FOR my children. I would read Remus had I no children at all. The insights of Remus constantly remind me our the sayings of my own father, a white working-class man from upstate New York. The basic plot of "Agin the law" is told in rural Korea as "The man and the Tiger". It matters little if the man becomes brother rabbit and the tiger brother wolf, the insight into sinful human nature remains the same world over in authentic folk tradition before Freud and Darwin. Our age, so enamoured with recent myths like Gaia and a world before patriarchy, desperately needs the old wisdom. You can find it in Uncle Remus.

Yet as one should expect from such tales, the broadest universals are presented in the homey form of the most simple particulars. Read these outloud, and you will feel the pulse of the African-American slave. Feel his realism, his cynicism, his optimism too - but don't miss his healthy relationship with "the boy", who eats the stories eagerly. In a day when ghetto illiteracy is glorified as "ebonics", how ironic that the slave dialect is pushed under the rug. I ran accross a copy of the complete Uncle Remus - retold by some politically correct rapist of art who makes the slave speak proper English. Miss Meadows even becomes "miz", a crass perversion that is no mere update of Uncle Remus' grammar, but a shameless violation of his world-view. In Remus, the Sisters are miss or missus. They keep house while the Brothers garden, hunt, build and bargain. God keep us from ever returning to unjust slavery; but we could use a dose of the realism and stability that allowed old black slaves to speak with authority and wisdom - and allowed white children like Mr. Harris to sit as scholars of the philosopher-slaves.

Since I've had my boys, I've read lots of children's literature. This is the ONE book I wish I had had as a child. Read it often and with relish.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully written bunch of tales., November 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Favorite Uncle Remus (Hardcover)

A great book! The hilarious adventures of Brer Rabbit and his friends teach children the basics of psychology in a fun way! No kid should be wihtout it.