Customer Rating: 
Summary: Pass this along from generation to generation
Comment: My mother TOLD this story to her 5 children. She did not read it from a book. I have been charged with seeing that all her grandchildren and great grandchildren are told this story. Not the "revised" sterile version that I found so I could be sure of reciting in the right order. Now I've found this orginal book and and my nieces and nephews are anxiously awaiting story time and my mothers legacy that started back in the 1940's. They in turn will be charged with continuing this old old tradition. It's heartwarming to read that others share the same memories, and that some things thankfully never change.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Historical story in today's world
Comment: Epaminondas and His Auntie
This is an old-world story, the theme as timeless as forever. It's a good reference for those who work with children & children's literature. The art work is as terrible as many others from it's era, & the vernacular is horrid. I would not read this to children today, altho it is a very valuable tool for historical purposes. It has been re-written for today's children in another title that is delightful.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Love it
Comment: My kids love this book especially there "Gram" is reading it. We video taped her reading it, just so we could have it for yrs and yrs to come. My kid love to watch and listen to her read it right before bed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Blinded by political correctness
Comment: I guess it depends through whose eyes you read this book. I am a black woman in my 40's and my mother told me this story when I was a child and as a teenager, when I was being short-sighted or too litteral about something, she would often call me "Epaminondas". I don't think that her intent was to be racist towards me, as it would seem an impossibility under the circumstances. What I do remember is that because of this story I am an out-of-the box thinker. I think quickly on my feet and can adapt very easily to changing circumstances by finding the common denominators in a situation, yet adjusting for possible variables. I want the same for my children and that is why I am buying them this book. Not everything in life has a racist or evil beginning, somethings are also just part of a tradition. It is only those with shame or guilt in their souls that see racism. Finally, for the uninformed "Epaminondas" was a greek political figure. Could it not simply be that he was named after him? Funny that you had time to turn the word around looking for the evil, rather than to appreciate the broader context of the story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Most Egregious Form of Racism
Comment: Reading some of the other reviews on this page shocked me. Turn the title around, and you find the "moral" of this book: Sadnonimape, which looks conspicuously like 'Sad No-name Ape'. This isn't a coincidence, and nearly drowning a puppy because you're trying to 'cool it before carrying it home' is not typical childish ineptitude. This book is racist to its core. The writing, the pictures, all convey derogatory stereotypes of black people. Anyone who does not understand these things has not fully recognized his or her own subscription to these stereotypes. I doubt anyone still says "My laws a-massy!". Please keep this book away from children. As a reminder of this country's shamefully racist past, this book succeeds, but any argument that calls this book benign forgets that before burning a cross on someone's lawn, you have to do the subversive, yet sometimes seemingly innocuous work of reducing that person to a stereotype such as that presented in Epaminondas.
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