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Writer sprinkled tales with Cajun spice

October 7, 2008 12:15 am

The e-mails were flying back and forth in the children's literature world last month with the sad news that author Coleen Salley had died. In her memory, I'm updating a column I wrote about her in 2006.

W HEN THE American Library Association met in New Orleans a few years back, I was lucky enough to attend a party hosted by Coleen Salley, a well known storyteller and children's literature professor.

Her house in the heart of the French Quarter was as charming as it was tiny. Behind the plain facade of painted wooden doors were brightly decorated rooms filled with books, opening into a courtyard with a fountain. We talked, sipped wine and nibbled Cajun delicacies. The company was charming, the food was delicious, the temperature was in the 90s. We had a marvelous time.

One of the delights of the Salley house was the kitchen wall. Professor Salley had invited every children's author and illustrator who had ever visited her--and there were lots of them--to leave a message on the wall.

The surface was covered with names, drawings and jokes from a panoply of the best known names in children's literature, including Jane Yolen, Trina Schart Hyman, David Macaulay and Rosemary Wells.

Though she made her career as a children's literature professor, Coleen Salley was first and foremost a terrific storyteller. As one publisher said, "When Coleen began to wrap her smoky Southern drawl around a story, we cradled our drinks and prayed that story would never end."

In her 70s, she wrote children's books of her own, setting traditional tales in New Orleans and environs.

"Who's That Tripping Over My Bridge?" takes the story of the three Billy Goats Gruff and moves it to East Feliciana Parish north of Baton Rouge. She's changed the setting--but, like any good storyteller, Salley keeps the vivid language that has made the story last through the generations, including the traditional ending: "Snip, snap, snout! This tale's told out!"

Foolish Jack is reborn as a Louisiana possum in Salley's "Epossumondas," illustrated by Janet Stevens.

"Epossumondas was his mama's and his auntie's sweet little patootie," but every time his mother sends him on an errand, young Epossumondas makes a mess of it.

When his auntie gives him a piece of cake to take home, he scrunches it up tight in his hand, causing his mother to admonish him to put cake on your head and put a hat over it. Good advice, until the next day when Auntie gives him a pound of butter. He dutifully puts it on his head and comes home a mess.

His long-suffering mother finally cries, "Oh, Epossumondas, you don't have the sense you were born with!"

The story will delight young listeners, while all ages will enjoy Stevens' depiction of the possum's mother and aunt dressed as 1950's matrons, complete with rouged cheeks and cat's-eye glasses. (Those who knew Salley will recognize this affectionate portrait of her.)

Epossumondas re-appears in "Epossumondas Saves The Day," in which the baby possum's party guests disappear one by one to be eaten by a "GREAT, HUGE, UGLY LOUISIANA SNAPPING TURTLE"--until the sweet patootie rescues them all.

In the spirit of Coleen Salley, read one of these books with your children, dawlin', and share the legacy of a great New Orleans storyteller.