By Mary Calhoun - Euphonia and the Flood (1976-08-16) [Library Binding]

by Mary Calhoun

Curious to see where the flood is going, an old woman packs her broom and pig into her boat and sets out to follow it.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

Unknown Binding

First published August 1, 1976

About the author

Mary Louise Huiskamp Wilkins, also known as Mary Calhoun was born on August 3, 1926 in Keokuk, Iowa. She received a bachelor's degree in journalism for the University of Iowa in 1948. She was hired as a reporter for the World-Herald in Omaha, Nebraska after graduation. Her fascination with spirits and folklore of the 19th century led her to write stories about witches, elves, cats, dwarfs, and pixies. She has also published stories in Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty magazines. She worked at the Omaha World Herald before marrying fellow journalist Frank Calhoun. Her first book, Making the Mississippi Shout, was published in 1957. She wrote more than 50 children's books during her lifetime including the Katie John series, Julie's Tree, Henry the Sailor Cat, and Cross-Country Cat. She died on October 27, 2015 at the age of 89.

Reviews

[Zakiya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can someone please put this book back into print!!! This is one of my favorite books from childhood. I can still see the illustrations in my head. Not only was it a great story, but had a wonderful and very important moral to it. I can still hear my father telling me that "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing well." That was a reoccuring theme in our household, if you're going to do something, then do it right or you might as well not even do it at all. I have been trying to find this book for my daughter for many years, searching various bookstores who all tell me the same thing, that it's out of print and can't be ordered. I suppose at this point I will maybe have to find it in a library or start searching used book stores. I would love to get my hands on a copy of this wonderful book to share with the new generation of childeren in our family. If you can find it, I highly reccomend reading it.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Euphonia believes that if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well, and so she does well by whatever comes her way. Until a flood comes her way, so she hops in her boat (Mary Anne, who floats very nicely, thank you!) with her pig Fatly and her broom Briskly and rows off to see where the flood is going.

Along the way she rescues various animals who are content to stay on their awkward perches because "We're better off than they were". And it's a good thing, too - the flood was going to a picnic! So that's a happy ending.

The illustrations are very funny, with a lot of little humorous bits in the sides. The text is amusing and lightly repetitive - whenever Euphonia tells the pig to do something ("Row, Fatly!") we're told that he did it fatly ("So the pig rowed fatly, and Mary Anne, she floated very nicely, thank you"), which sooner or later makes everybody giggle.

You really need this one in your library. Obtain a copy.

[4 Starr Kids · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Anything worth doing is worth doing well."