GraceAnne DeCandido (Booklist, Aug. 1, 2002 (Vol. 98, No. 22))
Salley, a noted storyteller, has turned her trademark tale into a giggle-and-guffaw-inducing picture book. This story, known in Salley's Louisiana as Epaminondas, is transformed here with the title character becoming a cheery little possum. His mama and his auntie, however, are human, and Stevens has made sure they resemble Salley, whose flower prints, hats, and big glasses are familiar to many in the children's-literature world. Epossumondas visits his auntie, and each day she sends him home with something. He carries home a piece of cake scrunched in his hands; Alligator allows how it doesn't look much like cake. Mama tells Epossumondas that he doesn't have the sense he was born with and instructs him to carry the cake under his hat. When he gets some fresh butter and puts that under his hat, the trouble (and the fun) begins. Children (and grown-ups) will squeal with laughter, both at the possum's literal interpretations of Mama's advice and at Stevens' illustrations, with their waggish animals and sassy watercolor-and-digital interiors. Category: Books for the Young--Fiction. 2002, Harcourt, $16. Gr. PreS-3.

Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
Epossumondas, his mama's and his auntie's "sweet little patootie," is a little possum still in diapers with a pacifier, offering us a different slant on a familiar noodlehead character. When he visits his auntie, she almost always gives him something to take home. Each time, he follows instructions given him from a previous disaster, which is of course the worst action for the object he is bringing home this time. Following the plan outlined for saving butter, he carries a resisting puppy wrapped in leaves to the brook to cool it. The loaf of bread gets the puppy treatment dragged home tied to a piece of string. His final literal following of instructions is a howler. Stevens's "watercolor, colored pencil, and photographic and digital elements on watercolor paper" depict a couple of dumpy ladies, a crew of not very helpful animal friends, and most important of all, our scraggly possum with pink ears and nose guaranteed to pull your heartstrings. There is an engaging vitality in these naturalistic characters set in minimal scenes on textured gray, with a bold, black typeface that helps integrate their actions. The Storyteller's Note gives some background on folktales in general and the gentle, silly humor of noodlehead tales in particular. 2002, Harcourt, $16.00. Ages 3 to 8.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2002 (Vol. 70, No. 15))
Variations of Epaminondas or Foolish Jack have had the noodlehead misconstruing his mama's advice for years, from black face and black dialect to more comic renditions, but this version hangs by a tail-and a possum's tail no less. "Epossumondas was his mama's and his auntie's sweet little patootie. They just loved him to death." But he proves he doesn't have the sense he was born with when he mangles and muddles his Mama's instructions as he carries home daily the items his Auntie gives him-crumbling the cake, melting the butter, nearly drowning the puppy, and battering the bread. His encounters with Alligator, Raccoon, Nutria, and Armadillo will have kids giggling out loud as they foresee what comes next, especially with Mama's final caution: "Be careful about stepping on those pies." In "A Storyteller's Note," Salley (a professional storyteller) cites the origin and reworking of this story, which is her signature tale. Those who know her will hear her voice as they read, but it is the lively, outsized illustrations that spark the story to its full exaggeration, painting the effusive Salley herself as Mama. The watercolor and color-pencil illustrations with photographic and digital elements play the silliness to the hilt with Mama at center stage in purple glasses, yellow hat with red rose, red shoes, and floral-print dress. Handsomely designed, the quality paper, pie-filled endpapers and large size add just the right pizzazz. Shaggy-haired, diaper-clad Epossumondas becomes a new name for a classic character with a wry, southern twist, and no misunderstanding-it's outrageous fun! 2002, Harcourt, $16.00. Category: Folktale. Ages 3 to 8. Starred Review. © 2002 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Vicki Arkoff (Midwest Book Review, "Vicki's Bookshelf" column, September 2002)
Louisiana-native Coleen Salley has been keeping the Southern oral storytelling tradition alive and well for thirty years, and here, for the first time, is her signature tale in picture book format. "Epossumondas" is her newest variation of the old "noodlehead story," originally about a human Epaminondas and his muddled-up mishaps. This time the protagonist takes the form of a foolish young possum, the "sweet little patootie" of his human mama and auntie who claim he "hasn't got the sense he was born with." In one case of misunderstanding after another, Epossumondas transports a gift from his auntie to his mama, and manages to ruin each item before it reaches home. When he listens carefully to his mama's absurd directions for, say, carrying a cake home on his head beneath a hat, he follows her directions to the letter, resulting in a head dripping with melted butter, a soggy puppy covered in leaves, and a raggedy loaf of bread dragged on the end of a rope. His final "oops" occurs after his mama decides to skip the middleman by going to see auntie herself. She leaves him along at home with six fresh baked pies on the porch and the warning, "You be careful about stepping on those pies." So of course he was careful: "he stepped right in the middle of every one." It's a laugh out loud tale for young and old. All that's missing is Salley's actual voice -- a thick-as-molasses southern drawl -- but her presence is felt in a different way: Janet Stevens ("To Market, To Market," "And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon") had fun basing the books' illustrations of both exasperated women, on Salley herself. 2002, Harcourt, 32 pages, $16.00.

Janice M. Del Negro (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October 2002 (Vol. 56, No. 2))
The traditional noodlehead story of the boy who “doesn’t have the sense he was born with” has long been a popular one with listeners and storytellers, although picture-book versions have been hard to come by. Enter Epossumondas (“Epossumondas was his mama’s and his auntie’s sweet little patootie. They just loved him to death”), an inexperienced, diaper-wearing, pacifier-sucking baby opossum, whose misadventures on his visits to his auntie are sure to cause a case of the storytime giggles. No matter what gift his auntie gives him (cake, butter, or bread), it bears little resemblance to its original form when Epossumondas gets it home. His despairing mother gives him advice, but the endearingly loopy baby ’possum constantly misinterprets her suggestions. Stevens’ mixed-media (watercolor, colored pencil, photo and computer images) illustrations feature roundly comfortable women in flowered dresses and eye-catching hats, along with personality-packed animal characters. Light and dark dashes outline the animals’ coats and add a scruffily energetic edge. Librarians and teachers who have been telling versions of the sometimes unfavored “Epaminondas” and “Lazy Jack” will happily welcome Salley’s variation on the theme. An extensive note discusses the general origins of the tale, but no specific sources are given. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2002, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2002, Harcourt, 34p, $16.00. Ages 4-7 yrs.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2003)
Epossumondas (a transformation of the now problematic "Epaminondas"), an outsized, bediapered possum, must carry gifts from his doting auntie to his equally besotted mama. This he dutifully does, always in preposterously inappropriate fashion. Stevens depicts the possum as an endearing noodlehead, his equally silly elders as comfortably large grandmotherly humans. The well-honed text will be just right for group sharing. Category: Nonfiction-Folktales and Nursery Rhymes. 2002, Harcourt, 40pp, $16.00. Ages 5 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Shirley Petersen (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 15, No. 3))
Readers familiar with the "noodlehead" story format will delight in this version of the Epaminodus story as written by Eve Merriam, Follet Publishing, 1968. Epossumondas is a little raccoon that is sent back and forth from his Auntie's house with various gifts to deliver to his mother. Along the way, he manages to lose or destroy each item. Every time, his mother gives him emphatic directions beginning with the statement, "Oh, Epossumondas! You don't have the sense you were born with! That's not the way to carry a ...!" and proceeds to explain in detail how to correct his method of transporting the goods. Of course, those instructions are faithfully carried out on the next item, which ends up as all the rest, in disaster. The traditional ending is included when Epossumondas carefully steps on the pies cooling on the porch, after being told to "be careful about stepping on those pies!" The outrageousness of the story line is enhanced by the illustrations of a diapered possum baby belonging to two outlandishly dressed matronly women. The characterization adds a touch of reality to balance the interactions between the possum and his other animal friends he meets along the way. This is a folk tale written in a manner children will relate to and will be left wanting to read another. Teachers will appreciate the storyteller's note of explanation at the end of the book. Fiction. Grades 3 and up. 2002, Harcourt, Unpaged, $16.00. Ages 8 up.