Epaminondas and his Auntie is a book for young children written by Sara Cone Bryant

Sara Cone Bryant

Sara Cone Bryant was the author of various children's book in the early 20th century, including*How to Tell Stories To Children*Stories to tell the littlest ones*Epaminondas and His Auntie*I am an American...

 and illustrated by Inez Hogan

Inez Hogan

Inez Hogan was an American author and illustrator of children's books, particularly animal stories. She was born in Washington, D.C. and attended the Cape Cod School of Art. She lived in Provincetown and New York City. She wrote 63 books, including many about her character Nicodemus...

. It was first published by Buccaneer Books in 1907.

The eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

ous main character is a young black boy, similar to Sambo in The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman

Helen Bannerman

Helen Bannerman was the Scottish author of a number of children's books, the most notable being Little Black Sambo. She was born in Edinburgh and, because women were not admitted as students into British Universities, she sat external examinations set by the University of St. Andrews and attained...

, based on a folk tale from the Southern states of the U.S. Like Little Black Sambo, it has been criticised for its racist

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 overtones and stereotype

Stereotype

A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...

s.

The story is really about miscommunication between adults and children.

Later versions of the tale were published by Constance Egan

Constance Egan

Constance Egan was an English author and editor. She was the second wife of Raymond Brooke-Little, an electrical engineer, and mother ofJohn Brooke-Little....

, Eve Merriam

Eve Merriam

-Writing career:Merriam's first book was the 1946 Family Circle, which won the Yale Younger Poets Prize.Her book, The Inner City Mother Goose, was described as one of the most banned books of the time. It inspired a 1971 Broadway musical called Inner City and a 1982 musical production called Street...

, Mary Claire Pinckney and Cathy East Dubowski. Some versions are written in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 or French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

.

• ISBN 0-89966-556-X
• Copy of the text