Epossumondas

If you’ve just seen the new Disney version of the Frog Prince, the Princess and the Frog set in New Orleans, you may be, like me, feeling nostalgic for the south. The hand drawn animation is gorgeous as is the film with all the imagined flavor of the south – the beautiful greenery, the smell of spicy Cajun dishes, the delectable taste of beignets, and the slow easy flow of the language in story.

Epossumondas Plays Possum is one of those southern stories, based on a traditional regional tale, that of Epaminondas, and adapted by Coleen Salley into award winning picture books for children about, to quote the book jacket, “the most lovable possum south of the Mason-Dixon line”.

It’s a beautiful summer morning when we first see Epossumondas and his mama sitting on the porch steps, sipping sweet tea. When he sees a butterfly flit past the hanging moss and head right into the scary swamp, he asks his Mama to tell him once again about the frightful loup-garou. Mama allows that she doesn’t know exactly what it looks or sounds like, but she’s heard tell it has the scariest snarl, the meanest hiss, and even the loudest snort of any beast you ever imagined. Worst of all, it snatches little possums up if they don’t mind their mamas and stay out of the swamp.

Mama goes in to fix lunch and you know what happens next. Epossumondas is not naughty but he is terribly forgetful, so when he sees the prettiest butterfly in all the world he runs down the path into the swamp and “plumb” forgets all about the loup-garou. Like a good possum he flops back, legs up, eyes, shut, perfectly still, when he hears no t the loup-garou but other familiar critters in the swamp. At last, all worn out from playing dead and wondering how he will ever find his way home, he hears his mama come to rescue her “clever little patootie.” Barb L.