Storey telling is an art. Those who do it well have my utmost respect. The south is filled with wonderful storey tellers. The south is also filled with lots of folk tales such as Epaminondas. Combine all of that with children’s literature and you have the delightful work of Coleen Salley.

The native of Louisiana wrote Epossumondas Saves The Day in 2006. The hardback is published by Harcourt and illustrated by Janet Stevens. In fact, Janet used Coleen as the image of mama in the book.

The storey is about a mama who lives in Laurel Valley on Bayou Lafourche. The mama is having a birthday party for Epossumondas but when she goes to bake the cake, she realizes that she is out of sody sallyraytus (baking soda). She first sends Baby Gator to the store to fetch some sody sallyraytus, but he doesn’t return. Then she sends Auntie to fetch some sody sallyraytus. But guess what? She doesn’t return either. So Mama decides to go herself. When she doesn’t return either, Epossumondas goes to the storey to investigate.

What creature of the bayou has prevented the safe return of Baby Gator, Auntie and Mama? Epossumondas does battle. Will he save the day, or will he too disappear?

This 38 page book is highly engaging for children and is a great read aloud with brilliant illustrations by Janet Stevens. The storey is delightful. The storey has some great tier two vocabulary words that would be good for expanding that ever important vocabulary! Words like bravest, perfect, burst, squeezed, humongous, and hightailed.

Given the great need that teachers have for good read aloud selections in the classroom, this book is a great addition to the literature of the classroom. Besides being delightful, it is written by a professional storey teller par excellence and illustrated by a renowned, awarding winning artist.

For more information about Coleen Salley you can visit her website at www.coleensalley.com. Visit Janet Stevens at www.janetstevens.com.


Recommended: Yes