Summary
Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl by Virginia Hamilton is about a rabbit who is always up to no good. In this story, Bruh Rabbit decides he doesn't want to do any work planting in the field, instead he sneaks out at night and steals crops from Bruh Wolf. Bruh Wolf tries all sorts of things to try and deter Bruh Rabbit from stealing his food, but to no avail. One day Bruh Wolf comes up with an idea to make a girl rabbit out of tar, this way when Bruh Rabbit sees it, he will try and get the attention of the girl rabbit and he will get stuck when he touches her. This is exactly what happened. Bruh Rabbit was stuck in the tar by his hands, his feet, and even his chin! Bruh Wolf comes along bragging that he finally caught Bruh Rabbit. He tells Bruh Rabbit that he ought to throw him into the briars. Bruh Rabbit begs him not to, so naturally, that's exactly what Bruh Wolf does. When Bruh Rabbit lands in the briar patch he yells back to Bruh Wolf that he has lived in the briars all his life, thank you. Briar Rabbit escaped to cause mischief again.
Evaluation
I really enjoyed reading this story. I know I say that about every book but it's true! I love the watercolor illustrations and the Gullah speech included in the story, even though sometimes it was a little hard to understand. There's an 'About This Book' section in the back that explains where this story came from and also the definitions for the Gullah words which made it much easier. I liked the story of Bruh Rabbit and I remember the Disney version from when I was a kid. The only thing I wondered was why Bruh Rabbit gets away in the end with no repercussion. After reading the 'About This Book' section I learned that during slave times, the slaves telling these stories, identified with Bruh Rabbit because small and helpless compared to the other animals, just like they were. I could see after that why Bruh Rabbit got the best of Bruh Wolf, because that is what you need to do to survive.
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