One afternoon during the middle of summer, Jenny was lying on the
floor waiting for 1:00 to roll around. When the clock struck 1:00, she turned
on the radio and tuned it to her favorite station. Jenny loved 94.6 The Kids Channel. Every day at 1:00 they would take a break and have story time. That
day when she tuned into the station, it was a story of How Brer Rabbit Got a House.
The radio
announcer said, “Well, kids, it is 1:00. That means it is time for a story. Today’s
story is about a trickster named Brer Rabbit. We will hear about one of his
tricks that he pulled on Brer Bear today. So let’s get this story started.”
The radio
announcer turned over the mic to the storyteller Mrs. Hodges. Mrs. Hodges began
reading the story with voices for every character saying, “Once upon a time the
animals of the woods all came together for a town meeting. At this town meeting
Brer Possum came up with an idea.
Brer Possum said,
“I think we should build a house to keep out all the bugs.”
Brer Wolf asked,”
Who would live in this house?”
Brer Possum
answered,” Anyone can live in this house. We can build it large enough that
everyone can fit! We can even build a room where animals can go when they are
sick.”
With this, the
animals all agreed to building the house. The next day, they started building
the house. All the animals were working hard except for one, Brer Rabbit.
Brer Possum asked
Brer Rabbit,” Hey, Brer Rabbit, can you climb up the scaffold and help Brer Wolf
with this wall he is working on?”
Brer Rabbit
climbed up the scaffold. When he reached the top of the scaffold he shouted at
the top of his lungs, “Oh, I feel so dizzy up here, I don’t think I can stay up
here very long.”
Brer Wolf (not
wanting anyone to get hurt) told Brer Rabbit, “Climb back down and go help Brer
Fox with his work.”
Brer Rabbit
climbed back down the scaffold, but instead of helping Brer Fox he started
telling the other animals what to do.
Brer Rabbit went
on to tell Brer Coon, “Climb up the scaffold and help Brer Wolf with the wall.
Brer Possum, why don’t you go help Brer Fox? He looks like he could use some
help.”
It didn’t take the
animals very long to finish building the house. Brer Rabbit was giving orders
left and right. After the house was finished it looked amazing! Brer Rabbit
decided that he wanted the room on the second floor to himself. He then came up
with an idea of how to trick the animals into leaving the house.
A few days later
after they finished the house, all the animals came home and Brer Rabbit told
the others, “I don’t feel so well. I am going to go upstairs and sit for a
little while.”
Brer Bear answered
for the group, “Well, we will stay downstairs. We will also try to stay quiet.”
Brer Rabbit went
upstairs. Instead of sitting down he crawled under his bed and got out a
double-barreled shotgun, a tub of water, and a cannon. After being upstairs for
a few minutes he loaded the double-barreled shotgun, and fired off two rounds.
This made the other animals jump. They weren’t sure what was going on.
Then, Brer Rabbit
called down the stairs, “I need to spit! Where do I spit?”
Brer Bear replied,
“Wherever you can make it to!”
Brer Rabbit then
ran towards the door near the stairs. He used the tub to throw water down the
stairs. The water soaked Brer Possum and Brer Bears daughters'. This made them
worry.
Brer Rabbit called
down the stairs one more time, “I need to sneeze!”
Brer Possum said,
“Well then, sneeze Brer Rabbit!”
Brer Rabbit went
to the cannon and fired off a round. This scared all the animals so much that
they took off for the hills! The animals never came back to that house. That is
how Brer Rabbit got his house.
Now, boys and
girls, that is all the time we have for story time today. Tune in tomorrow to
hear another trick of Brer Rabbit's!”
Jenny got up off
the floor turned the radio off and lay down, again waiting for the story that
she would hear tomorrow.
Bibliography:
Joel Chandler Harris
The plan's for the animals house.
Laura Gibbs Blog
Author's note:
The stories of Brer Rabbit came from the 19th century. It
is told in a language that uses slang that was well known in the African-American
culture. The story that I read is a version of the story that is being retold
as a verse. The original story kept tradition with the dialog from the country.
I basically took the original story and changed the way that it was told. I
added more dialog to make the story interesting along with the way that the
story was told. My version of the story takes away from some of the traditional
dialog. I struggled reading the dialog so I wanted to change it to be easier
for little kids to read. I liked the way the original story went along. I
couldn't think of anything creative to change this story. When adding dialog to
the story, I was able to be a little creative with the events that were
happening in the story. I tried to think up a way to change how Brer Rabbit got
his house but I couldn't think of anything that would be different than the way
the story ended. I also added the character of Jenny who made a short
appearance in this story. This came from the inspiration of the stories being told by Uncle Remus to a little boy.
