Epossumondas
Veteran children's lit professor Coleen Salley tells a variation on her  signature story, an archetypal "noodlehead" tale based on the time-honored  Southern legend of Epaminondas. A "sweet patootie" named Epossumondas headlines  here as a be-diapered young possum who follows his mama's instructions a little  too literally."Queen Coleen" (as Salley sometimes goes in her native New Orleans) tells her  story in slow, old-South cadence, repeating a cycle where Epossumondas visits  his auntie "most every day" and receives something to take home to his mama's.  His gifts, however, never seem to arrive intact: After Epossumondas arrives home  with a piece of cake that's been squinched into a fistful of crumbs, his mama  scolds, "Oh, Epossumondas, you don't have the sense you were born with! That's  no way to carry cake! The way to carry cake is to put the cake on your head, put  a hat on your head, and come along home." But the next day, Auntie gives him  butter, which then gets carried home cake-style (on his head). The next day, he  gets "a sweet little puppy," which then gets carried home butter-style (wrapped  in leaves and cooled in a brook), etc.Caldecott Honor-winner Janet Stevens has obvious fun capturing Epossumondas's  ridiculous errands in watercolor and colored pencil, especially as other bayou  animals look on in puzzlement. But Steven's biggest coup has to be conveying the  story's subtle secret--that Epossumondas might not be as dumb as he looks. (Ages  4 to 8)--Paul Hughes