The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit

I hesitated for a long time before taking on this book from the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read list. I knew there was great controversy about it. When I did decide to read it (or rather, as I did, listen to the audio of it), I chose a version written by black folklorist and literature professor, Julius Lester, who saw the Uncle Remus stories as important records of black folklore. Lester rewrote the stories in “an effort to elevate the subversive elements over the purportedly racist ones.” I was also interested to see that black author Ralph Ellison said about this work, “Aesop and Uncle Remus had taught us that comedy is a disguised form of philosophical instruction; and especially when it allows us to glimpse the animal instincts lying beneath the surface of our civilized affectations.”

Julius Lester also read this version of the stories.