Bo Rabbit Smart for True: Tall Tales from the Gullah
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Authors
Emrich, Duncan
Jaquith, Priscilla
Stoddard, Albert Henry
Issue Date
1995
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Original edition published in 1981. The pleasant surprises in this book begin with the orientation. Both the dust jacket and the title-page orient the reader to put the binding up and to flip the pages. The Gullah is the territory of the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. The introduction tells us that these tales are based on the work of Albert H. Stoddard, recorded by the Library of Congress in 1949. Six stories are offered, followed by notes (missing the roots of these tales in ancient versions) and bibliography. Bo Rabbit beats both the elephant and the whale by pitting them against each other. He traps the white-bodied alligator family in the midst of a field by promising them an experience of trouble. The result is that their bodies are burned black-green and become rough and bumpy. Cooter the turtle has his smooth white shell turned yellow-and-black and cracked after crow lets him fall from the heavens; Cooter had begged to be taken to a party in heaven thrown by the Father for all birds. Partridge, by hiding so cleverly as not to be found, teaches a lesson that Bo Rabbit sums up by saying You got the feather to hide. I got the long leg to run (49). FS is told in standard fashion; here Jaquith and Young combine effectively to show fox watching food travel down the stork's long throat and again to show fox literally smoking with anger before he laughs at the end. This is the only story in which Bo Rabbit does not appear. In the last story, Bo Rabbit talks the rattlesnake to going back under the log that had fallen on him, supposedly to see how bear rescued him. The illustrations come four to a page in a column on the left, with text on the right. Young continues the great black-and-white work I first admired in Wie die Maus den Loewen rettete. Do not overlook the shadowy illustrations that precede and often end the stories. The dialect is delightful--just different enough from standard English to make a reader perk up and take notice. The imitations of animal sounds are also well done.
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Publisher
Philomel Books: Putnam & Grosset Group
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Identifier
3634 (Access ID)