It is difficult to admit the necessity for changing by one word something so fine as the Brer Rabbit stories from NIGHTS WITH UNCLE REMUS and UNCLE REMUS, HIS SONGS AND HIS SAYINGS. But for children eager for the content of the story itself and lost in the drama of the situations it seems right to select the most appealing stories as they were told originally, without the adult reminiscent digressions and comments, and with some simplification of the dialect.

Miss Brown says in her Foreword: "All revision has tried to be faithful to the tone and rhythm of the stories and to the desired emphasis of the Negro storyteller behind the story, to the cadence and musical timing of his art . . . . This collection is an attempt to present to a wider and a younger public these folk stories, which are the most rhythmic and vivid contribution to children's literature that America can offer."

These stories are illustrated with over fifty of the beloved A.B. Frost pictures, redrawn for reproduction.

From the dust jacket