My Big Book of Brer Rabbit Stories is a vintage collection of Brer Rabbit stories written and illustrated by Rene Cloke and published by Award in 1983.
The front cover is a pale blue, featuring an oval frame composed on English wildflowers that appear in the books. Around the outside of the oval perch several characters from the stories: Brer Bear, Brer Fox, Mrs Goose, Brer Tortoise, and a woodland character common to the illustrations (a wood vole). Within the white background of the oval frame is Brer Rabbit, wearing a yellow sweater under a pair of red dungarees, dancing and playing a pipe/flute (not something that happens in the stories and that seems out of character).
The back cover shows an illustration of Brer Rabbit standing on the back of a tortoise he is apparently riding, using a red ribbon as reins (also not something that appears in the stories or illustrations and that is a bit perplexing, as that tortoise is usually depicted as Brer Tortoise, his good friend).
There is no contents page, but the stories that appear in this collection are:
- Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox
- The Tar-Baby
- Brer Rabbit and Brer Tortoise
- Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox Go Fishing
- Brer Fox and Mrs Goose
- The Moon in the Pond
- Brer Rabbit and the Honey Pot
- Brer Wolf Breaks the Law
The endpapers are identical to those used for the earlier collections, showing images of Brer Rabbit and other characters from the stories, along with English woodland animals like red squirrels, a great tit, and harvest mice. The scenes include Brer Rabbit in the well bucket and in the briar patch, and several images of Brer Tortoise and Brer Fox.
The bookplate on the copyright page is that used in the More Brer Rabbit Stories collection. The title page is new, featuring new illustrations:
Page by page comparisons show that My Big Book of Brer Rabbit Stories has identical illustrations and typography to the earlier two books in the collection. The only difference I noted was that the colours in this reprint appear less vivid and more washed out, but that may be a difference localised to my copy. I note that it's the same large size as the original collections (approximately 33 x 23 cm), which makes me wonder if later reprints of these Brer Rabbit stories in smaller sizes of necessity slashed some of the illustrations or rearranged text and illustrations to fit them all in, as happened with Rene Cloke's My First Picture Book of Nursery Rhymes.
I won't repeat my thoughts about the stories and illustrations here, as I've already reviewed the original collections. For a list of the full range of Brer Rabbit stories written and illustrated by Rene Cloke, along with my reviews of her Brer Rabbit stories, see Rene Cloke's Brer Rabbit Stories.
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