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Mere
Comes
Trouble
A local author, and a young Mr. Epstein,
help children learn about safety.
And Trouble
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor
A
s if having a name like E. Pominonous
wasn't enough.
First,.E. Pominonous ran, without
looking, into the street. The EMS truck
came. Then E. Pominonous found a gun and acci-
dentally shot a fish. The police came.
What's ahead for E. Pominonous?
More and more and more trouble — thanks to
Susan H.N. Bernstein of West Bloomfield.
Bernstein is the author of two story/coloring
books, featuring E. Pominonous Epstein, designed
to teach children about some of the many dangers
they may face. E. Pominonous Epstein Minds. His
Mind tells what happens when the boy plays with a
gun, and E. Pominonous And Trouble finds the pro-
tagonist dashing into the street to retrieve his ball.
Bernstein holds a master's degree in speech and
language pathology from Wayne State University
and has worked as a volunteer with various English
as a Second Language
(ESL) and literacy pro-
grams. Four years ago, she
began thinking about the E.
Pominonous series, inspired
by an imaginary character
created by her father, the late
Harold R Nelson.
"My father was a strong
personality, a very bright man. He had a terrific
sense of humor and was handsome, blue-eyed and
blond — when he had hair," she said.
"He used to tell us stories about this little boy, E.
Pominonous Epstein, who was always getting into
trouble and having adventures. It was spellbinding
,
the way he told them."
Exactly how young Mr. Epstein got his charming,
if rather extraordinary, name is anybody's guess.
"I think my father said it came from a Greek
word, but he certainly came up with the 'Epstein,"'
Bernstein said.
Today, some smaller children scoff at the idea of
inds.His Mind and E. Pominonous And Trouble at
ty Shop in Bloomfield Hills, at Tradition! Tradition! in
and the library at Congregation Shaarey Zedek, and
.wriF
#sfi,
3
Susan Bernstein
has known E.
Pominonous
since she was a
young girl.
actually pronouncing E. Pominonous. Bernstein
tells them to just sound it out phonetically, and
whQn they do, "they're so very proud that they can
read this long word."
Harold Nelson's greatest fans were his daughters
Susan and Marcia (today Marcia Silverman), but
the girls' friends also frequently came over to hear
the adventures of E. Pominonous. Later, Nelson
would tell the stories to his grandchildren.
"I have to say that when my father told them,
they were a little different," Bernstein said. "E.
Pominonous would get hit by a car and his head
would go rolling down the street. Somehow, the
doctors would always magically be able to put the
head back on."
Bernstein loved hearing these as a child, but
decided to eliminate the more graphic aspects of E.
„E _
int
-- 4,11e.t3
•
7/6
7,411 1,94 4.
2001
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