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It’s Christmas time in Louisiana! This year Elise and her mother are traveling from New Orleans to join her family in Natchitoches to celebrate the season in a very special way.

Along north Louisiana’s Cane River, holiday traditions include parades—even a boat parade!—along the river and a Christmas festival with arts and crafts and carolers singing. The light-bedecked city of Natchitoches enchants Elise. Christmas lights blink from every lamppost and storefront. The twinkling colors are reflected in the river, and fireworks light up the sky. The sugary scent of funnel cakes and cotton candy saturates the evening breeze. But Elise’s favorite holiday treat is the famous Natchitoches meat pie that Maw-Maw sells at her festival booth every year. Can you guess her secret ingredient?

Natchitoches, Louisiana’s oldest city, has celebrated the Christmas season with a festival for a century. Today, the Natchitoches Christmas Festival lasts six weeks long and features hundreds of thousands of lights, days of entertainment for children and adults, and visits from Santa. And everyone’s favorite festival food? The Natchitoches meat pie, of course! The official recipe for this yummy snack concludes the tale of Elise’s family Christmas.

In Louisiana’s Cajun Country, a celebration like no other occurs each Mardi Gras. The families of Acadiana come together on Fat Tuesday to host a centuries-old tradition: the Courir de Mardi Gras. During the running of the Mardi Gras, brightly costumed participants run, beg, sing, and dance for their neighbors as they gather tasty ingredients for the gumbo that will be shared at a dance party under a shining Mardi Gras moon. 

But once upon a time, many years ago, the moon vanished, nearly putting an end to the fais-do-do! A fiendish duo hooked the festive moon and towed it away, depriving the revelers of their purple, green, and gold moonbeams.

So young Leloup set off on a quest to recover the shining sentry. A sprinkling of familiar bayou characters and critters are scattered throughout this fairytale. Through teamwork, and some silly shenanigans, they help our hero as he returns the moon to its proper place in the Cajun sky, just in time to enjoy a celebratory gumbo and dance to some zydeco tunes. He might have even found some Mardi Gras treasure along the way!

Leloup’s story is full of fun references to the Acadian culture and is complete with a glossary of Cajun words, phrases, and places.

Sing along with the Carnival version of the favored nursery rhyme “The Wheels on the Bus.” This playful parody entertains with festive flair, as during Mardi Gras, it’s not a bus but a decorated float brimming with beads that delight the youngest parade-goers. Through engaging art and fun prose, children are transported to the parade route, enchanted by the magical sights and scenes of the season. 

Excitement fills every page! Tractors honk to the crowds as they pass, pulling the floats all Mardi Gras long. As beads fly through the air and crowds cheer, “Throw me something, mister!” drums boom and dance teams twirl. The best of a young reveler’s favorite Carnival parades are all found here. Join in the fun as the floats roll all through the town!

The rhythmic flow of the verse and colorful illustrations immerse readers in the joyous and culturally rich experience of Mardi Gras. Perfect for read-aloud sessions and interactive story times, this whimsical yet educational introduction to the Carnival celebration is an ideal addition to preschools, library shelves, and home collections. 

It is time for nap at Sassy’s house. But she is wide awake! Young readers will follow along as Sassy travels the state of Louisiana, enjoying music in New Orleans, picking strawberries in Ponchatoula, and touring the swamps. Wait, was she sleeping and dreaming the whole time?

There’s a mystery at Washington Middle School that only Michael the wildlife detective can solve. Secretive guests have moved into the school gymnasium and Principal Green doesn’t know what to do. But not to worry! Using math, music, science, and physical evidence, Michael uncovers the identities of the mysterious intruders who have decided to make the school their new home.

           As Michael reveals clue after clue, young readers will enjoy guessing the identities of the critters putting the school into an uproar. Throughout his stakeout, Michael offers a lesson on the gymnasium’s new residents and how to safely and humanely encourage them to move along.

           Author Michael Birt, a wildlife biologist, shares with readers the importance of treating wild animals and nature with respect and kindness—even when they end up in unnatural spaces and cause inconvenience for their human neighbors. He highlights the importance of finding compassionate solutions to pesky problems and explains why the school’s mystery guests are so special.

Stumpy and his brothers Bumpy and Lumpy are born deep in the marsh in this bayou retelling of “The Three Little Pigs.” However, this threesome’s fearsome foe is not a wolf with large lung capacity but the big bad winds from the Gulf of Mexico. Stumpy knows that his brother’s sawgrass nest won’t withstand a stiff breeze, much less the storm approaching from the south. As a hurricane rushes in and makes fast work of their first home, Stumpy can’t help but open his big mouth and tease his older brothers. “I told you so!” he shouts as the wind rips and roils around them, tearing them from one nest after another. The storm taunts them with clever rhyme, throws them out of home after home, surges, and purges. But it also teaches them about respecting the forces of nature. Stumpy, Bumpy, and Lumpy learn to stay inside and throw themselves a little hurricane party in true Gulf States fashion.

           With sassy Southern humor and silly illustrated fun, Stumpy and his brothers weather the storm. Now if only Stumpy could learn to keep his big mouth closed when the waters rise and the winds come howling.

The first-ever field guide to American birds, Florence A. Merriam’s classic Birds Through an Opera-Glass remains a highly influential book for modern birdwatching more than 130 years since its initial release. 

Birds Through an Opera-Glass is Florence A. Merriam’s pioneering field guide to American birds. The first-ever of its kind, originally published in 1889, it laid the foundation for modern birdwatching. Before Birds Through an Opera-Glass, it was commonplace to shoot birds and study their lifeless bodies. Merriam instead advocated studying birds in the wild—through an opera glass rather than a riflescope—to ensure their preservation. With line drawings and detailed descriptions of seventy common species, Birds Through an Opera-Glass remains a favorite of birders, nature lovers, and conservationists to this day. 

As the first female member of the American Ornithologists’ Union, Merriam was a trailblazer in the emerging field of birding in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Today she is regarded as an essential early voice for bird conservation, and Birds Through an Opera-Glass shows her important principles put into practice. More than a century later, Birds Through an Opera-Glass continues to guide birders and outdoor enthusiasts who are seeking to enjoy nature without harming it. 

Drag racing at Starkey, the debut of television, mass polio vaccinations, college football games at Victory Stadium, Roanoke’s Diamond Jubilee, Salem’s Sesquicentennial, and Vinton’s Dogwood Festival American Viscose closed, the N&W Railway switched to diesel and the General Electric plant opened. The Roanoke Valley welcomed the Children’s Zoo on Mill Mountain and the Miss Virginia Pageant to Hotel Roanoke. From a new terminal at Woodrum Field to the erection of Cave Spring High School, municipal projects reflected the economic boom times. Sears Town, Miller & Rhoads, the viaduct, and a new main library altered downtown Roanoke. WDBJ and WSLS television stations went on the air, premiering local programs such as Saturday Session, Top O’ the Mornin’, and Uncle Looney. The nation’s top entertainers performed at the American Theatre, Lakeside, and the American Legion Auditorium. The valley’s arts scene produced the Roanoke Fine Arts Center, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, and Showtimers. Minor league baseball teams played to large crowds in the stands at Maher Field, Municipal Field and Springwood Park. Black leaders campaigned for equal pay, desegregation, and neighborhood equity./ By searching every edition of the Roanoke Times and the Roanoke Tribune from January 1950 through December 1959, local historian Nelson Harris documents the decade’s local events in sports, business, crime, arts, entertainment, religion, civil rights, politics, individual achievements, and healthcare.

"Pass" a good time in Acadiana in this tour of Cajun country and culture! The sights, sounds, and smells of all things Cajun two-step off the page, introduced letter by letter in alphabetical order. From the alligators in the bayou to the stars of the zydeco stage, the food, music, literature, and language unique to the people of southern Louisiana are delightfully rhymed and beautifully illustrated. From the smallest details of daily life to the fantastical "fifolet" of Cajun folklore, the spirit and the spice of Cajun country infuse these pages. Author Rickey Pittman includes maps of Acadiana, a graph showing the concentration of Cajun speakers by parish, and a glossary of terms. On each page, artist Alexis Braud hides a pelican just waiting to be found by emerging readers.