African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Two Rabbit Books

Anansi has been getting a lot of attention here lately, so I wanted to do some Rabbit today, featuring two children's books by authors very familiar to readers of this blog: Julius Lester and Virginia Hamilton.

Here's the Julius Lester book: Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear.

Follow this link for more books by Julius Lester!

The illustrations are by Elsa Godfrey. As you can see, this is the famous story of how Brer Rabbit tricked a girl into letting him into her father's garden so he could eat all the lettuce. (And yes, Mr. Bear will have an important role to play in the story too!)

And here's the Virginia Hamilton book: Bruh Rabbit and the Tar-Baby Girl, an even more famous Rabbit story. 

Follow this link for more books by Virginia Hamilton!

The illustrations are by James Ransome, one of my favorite illustrators! Here's the rabbit all tangled up on the tar-baby girl:

You might remember Ransome from this book of stories from the southern U.S. as told by J. J. Reneaux: How Animals Saved the People: Animal Tales from the South. 

We can never get too many rabbit stories; enjoy!

Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear

by Julius Lester

Bruh Rabbit and the Tar-Baby Girl

by Virginia Hamilton