Good-bye, Coleen Salley

New Orleanian Coleen Salley wore many hats in her lifetime: storyteller, professor of children's literature, children's book author, literacy advocate. She died this week at the age of 79. I hadn't known her work until I read Epossumondas Saves the Day to a first-grade class earlier this year, and now I feel like a friend is gone. Around the I'net you'll find some reminiscences. New Orleans blogger b.rox has a photo of Salley and her krewe in a Mardi Gras parade, and A Frolic of My Own is featuring a hilarious picture, too. Elsewhere, read

Educating Alice

Kimberly Willis Holt's Jambalaya

Deborah Wiles' One Pomegranate

Read Roger

HumidCity

Library Stew

Times-Picayune obituary

I like what Betsy Groban said in the New York Times Book Review (11.17.02) about the first Epossumondas book. She wrote, "As amusing as the illustrations are, the Southern cadence of Salley's voice, best captured when the story is read aloud again and again, is what makes this regional tale a treasure."

9/24: Updated to add reminiscences by Planet Esme, The Pulpwood Queen's Book Club, and Susan Larson (book editor at the Times-Picayune)

Comments

[Jules]

What a loss. Love those Epossumondas books.
Jules
7-Imp

[Susan T.]

She wrote her first picture book at 72, I read.

Very sad.

[TadMack]

I just heard of this great dame when I heard she was ill -- sorry to hear this, her books look so fun.

That's what I love about authors; they might leave us, but they don't take all their gorgeous books when they go.

[Cindy T.]

CS,

I'm sure your Mississippi accent made the reading extra special.

HIF

[Susan T.]

I did use my Southern accent when I read to the first graders, HIF! It was fun. I hammed it up.